RIM's fate could be decided on February 24th

Why does it seem that the RIM drama is really taking place on two trains heading in opposite directions: in the Patent Office where NTP's questionable patents seem close to being invalidated, and in federal court, where RIM is but one ruling away from being forced to shut down sales and service nationwide? Maybe it's because an injunction by Judge James Spencer on February 24th could spell disaster for the Blackberry maker, even though it most likely didn't do anything wrong (at least with regards to NTP). While Crackberry addicts across the country prepare for possible withdrawal, those of us with smartphones who don't care about getting our email the nanosecond after it's sent smugly go about our daily business without a care in the world.

[Erik @ Jan 26th 2006 7:15AM]

RIM will lose in court, the exceptional public interest BS won't hold because there are reasonable alternatives.

The patent office won't invalidate the patents either...they were applied for and held within regulation. If they were going to be invalidated, it would have happened a long time ago.

[PEZ @ Jan 26th 2006 8:19AM]

RIM isnt losing anything. 80% of the Federal Government are on Blackberries - and who is on the Federal Court? Buddies of the Bush Administration. This is why is going back and forth between higher and lower courts.

No one wants to be the bad guy and screw the big boys. And no one wants to do the wrong thing. What you hear on the news or read is a load. Its all going to be settled behind closed doors.

[Andrew @ Jan 26th 2006 9:04AM]

I personally hope they get shutdown! I just had to deploy crackberries against my will... stupid worthless machines if you ask me. Hello smart phones? crackberries are outdated...; just no way they can complete with all the new technology coming out. I personally cant wait for the day I turn in my crackberry for a new windows smart phone... with touch screen! AND no more stupid scroll wheel. Good riddance.

[Patrick @ Jan 26th 2006 9:11AM]

I doubt 80% of the Federal government uses Blackberries. Do you know how large the government is? But the point is well taken. If RIM knows what's good for it they will settle behind closed doors. They just need to fork over the cash to settle the patents. I guess they can't afford to buy NTP?

[Jaime Jones @ Jan 26th 2006 9:23AM]

#2, with regard to the Fed Govt using Crackberries, there has already been a proviso that requires Government employees' Crackberries to stay lit even if the injunction is granted. This is the so-called "public safety" requirement that will prevent the government from being left in the lurch if the service is enjoined from future use.

So the back and forth between higher and lower courts has nothing to do with politics (at least not the politics you mention regarding Bush etc.) and more to do with RIM desperately trying to grasp any appeal motion to limit or mitigate the eventual injunction.

The real question is: Why has RIM acted so brazen fighting something that is obviously not a winning position? They could have settled it for 450 Million USD long ago but removed the offer from the table (which is one of the reasons why Judge Spencer is so annoyed with these clowns).

From a business perspective, RIM should settle for whatever amount and pay over a period of time and move forward with their business rather than wallowing in this litigation mess. Think about it, if you are in the market for this type of product, are you going to think twice before choosing a Crackberry (based on the fact that it might not be around in 6 months or less)?

RIM should settle and move onwards and upwards. This litigation has GOT TO BE killing their business!

:)

[Nick @ Jan 26th 2006 9:38AM]

My law firm uses about 2000 blackberries. Love em or hate em, we would be screwed if they got shut down over night. Even if they were a reasonable window, the it would be an unappriciated financial hit to replace them all, integrate new devices into our system, and provide training (you try training a 60 year old partner to use a blackberry!). Now multiply that times most of corporate america...No good.

[boe @ Jan 26th 2006 10:47AM]

I can't believe MS isn't cashing in on this. MS could role out MSFP today and then anyone who was worried about their service could jump ship. They should at least role out beta so they could say it is only beta.

[Virtuous @ Jan 26th 2006 11:43AM]

California and I'm sure other states deploy Blackberries. RIM should settle with NTP and institute their secret fix.

[Anders @ Jan 26th 2006 12:23PM]

Why not just trade in that clunker RIM device, get a Smartphone and sign up for Visto Mobile. After using both services, Visto is far superior and has the added bonus of being able to work on any device with any carrier.

[Matt Thurston @ Jan 26th 2006 12:31PM]

I can't see them actually getting shut down. It's probably the last thing NTP wants. If RIM were to shut down, NTP would be left holding onto a patent and having nothing but the smugness in knowing they won. RIM will settle or roll out their work around, and I'll still get my email in a reasonable amount of time.

[Amadeus @ Jan 26th 2006 1:07PM]

#10: NTP wouldn't be left with nothing. They struck an equity deal with Visto last month and could roll out a competitive transition platform overnight. Maybe even sweeten the deal by getting a device manufacturer (Palm, MOT, HTC, etc) to offer discounts on Smartphones for RIM users that jump ship. Think of all that free pocket space when RIM users get to stop carrying 2 devices: a Blackberry and a phone.

[Bob-o @ Jan 26th 2006 1:31PM]

#1, you have it wrong. There is no device that currently is on the level of RIM in terms of enterprise control/security. Blackberries have exceptional device security, with no overrides, which makes it ideal for many corporations. Combined with a Blackberry Enterprise Server, IT departments can control exactly what you can and cannot use on the device. i.e. they can deny you the ability to install possibly insecure applications on the device. Hell, they can even deny you the use of the calculator if they wanted it. No other devices have been built with that level of control and security.

[Crackster @ Jan 26th 2006 1:40PM]

#11, more than a few of us use Blackberry devices that are also phones. In fact, my 7105 looks a lot like your typical candy bar Smartphone, with just enough extra width to help me type faster than on my old mpx200, with plenty o'pocket space left over.

[-=v00d00=- @ Jan 26th 2006 2:56PM]

While it is nice to think that RIM will fall and the world will become overrun by more colorfull, more powerfull, more compatible devices such as smart phones and Pocket PC's, I can assure you as a Microsoft employee , Pocket PC/SmartPhone advocates do not want to see NTP to win this battle. Microsoft is all but guaranteed a day in court with NTP down the line if they manage to beat RIM into submission. All messaging protocols basically work the same and the MS technology that "pushes" (actually it doesn't an SMS message is delivered that notifies your device you have mail and it then goes to get it) is not fundamentally different from RIM's.

[Steve @ Jan 26th 2006 3:19PM]

this sounds alot like the american courts upset that a CANADIAN company is the producer and thus benefactor of such a wonderful, efficient piece of equipment. if an american company made the blackberry this case would have been thrown out the day it was introduced.

[Gene @ Jan 26th 2006 4:49PM]

>All messaging protocols basically work the same and the MS technology that "pushes" (actually it doesn't an SMS message is delivered that notifies your device you have mail and it then goes to get it)

That was true until Windows Mobile Feature Pack with Exchange 2003 SP2. The older Always Up To Date service would send an sms to the device to get it to initiate a data connection and check the server.

WMFP keeps an always on data connection by sending a "ping" command to the device every so often, so that when an email comes in it can push it.

It also includes a couple BES like features in that you can force a password to be set on the device and kill the device if it's lost or stolen, but it's still not nearly the amount of control as RIMs BES yet.

[badonkadonk @ Jan 26th 2006 7:09PM]

Patrick - NTP is a privately held company, and not for sale, so no, RIM can't just buy them, or their patents.

Jaime Jones - RIM did not pull their offer for $450M, NTP walked away from it. RIM tried (unsuccessfully) to get the judge to rule that the "terms sheet" RIM had hammered out with NTP was in fact a binding settlement, as they had (jointly) announced last March. They got turned down, and were told to come up with a new settlement.

Right now, they're both playing a stalling and waiting game - RIM is trying to push the legal process out so that the USPTO can finish determining if the patents they have thus far rejected will ever be re-approved or not. If they are, then RIM has to pay, or force all their customers in the US to upgrade to a service that is non-infringing. NTP is trying to delay the patent re-examiniation process by doing things like re-submitting their pattents with 2000 new claims (each of which has to be checked to see if it is novel or not), in the hopes (apparently bolstered by the judges remarks in October) that the legal system will not wait for the USPTO to actually do its job. Clearly RIM doesn't want to have to pay for "future infringement" costs on patents that may ultimately be invalid. The fact that NTP is asking for a lump-sum for 5.8% of RIM's revenue from now until 2012 is what makes this such a sticking point, because that dollar figure ranges wildly from $600M to $1.2B. As well, having RIM license these patents gives NTP fuel to go after other push-mail services, like Seven, Smartner and Microsoft (given that Good, Nokia and Visto already license them).

Steve - I don't think this is an issue of Canadian v. American company, though RIM is trying to make it so - the NTP patents cover a complete end-to-end system; RIM's patents cover individual parts of the system, and RIM's solution has one of those parts located outside the US jurisdiction. RIM has (unsuccessfully) tried to get the US courts to agree that since part of the system is outside the US, the NTp patents don't apply. They have also tried (unsuccessfully) to have the Supreme Court take the case to determine the extent that US patents apply to technologies that are outside of the US.

[Toneroo @ Jan 26th 2006 7:52PM]

#7
I was just at a Microsoft presentation today regarding MSFP and Mobile 5. Even if MS were to release MSFP tomorrow, there isn't a phone on the market that has the firmware to support it. Having Mobile 5 doesn't give you automatic push, the phones need the most recent firmware and it isn't being released until March.

[cheap @ Jan 26th 2006 8:42PM]

All i can say is the Q phone better come out before the Blackberrys go away.

[taylor @ Jan 27th 2006 6:37AM]

some of yall seem very sure RIM wont be shut down, i am not one of them, so any one want to buy my two month old 7290 from cingular? no scratches or anything, sale it for the cheap price of $200, thats 150 less than i paid, i am willing to part with it, im no crackberry.

[Steve @ Jan 27th 2006 10:34AM]

badonkadonk - I don't think you quite caught where I was going with my post. While I see where you're coming from on the argument of jurisdiction, the fact of the matter is ... every time a Blackberry is sold in the US it is a leakage for the American economy (macroeconomics 101), money earned and then spent in the US makes its way out of the US and into Canadian hands. The government wants the courts to rule against RIM. why? Every penny that RIM must hand over to NTP is an injection back into the economy, its simply recovering as much of that leakage as it can, and when you are in debt as much as the US is, you want every penny. The government doesn't care if blackberry service shuts down, theirs will still work and to them thats all that matters. If RIM was American we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[Timmah! @ Jan 27th 2006 5:20PM]

Other than the #16 (badonkadonk), just wow.... All you morons and your idiotic speculations... If you're just plain unaware of the facts, your "opinions" aren't really worth that much. Feel free to not share. A wise man once said - "opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one."

Everyone knows that the government's blackberries are not going to get shut down. Even NTP has agreed to that. So the service being shut down (if it EVER comes to that) will only affect mere mortals like us. That said, it's extremely unlikely that it will in fact get shut down, there's just too much at stake for too many parties involved. It's true that RIM is just biding it's time to hopefully get a ruling in it's favor and avoid paying a bunch of money unnecesarily to NTP.

For you retards who advocate WM smartphones for corporate use - which was the last secure MS system you've used? Blackberries are about security, that's on top of the priority list and that's why they're so successful. For your average school-going kiddie, get a Windows smartphone, you can "crack" it to your heart's content. For corporate use, there's just no substitute.

[Darth Noxious @ Feb 7th 2006 7:28AM]

"For you retards who advocate WM smartphones for corporate use - which was the last secure MS system you've used? Blackberries are about security, that's on top of the priority list and that's why they're so successful. For your average school-going kiddie, get a Windows smartphone, you can "crack" it to your heart's content. For corporate use, there's just no substitute."

Awesome. I don't think it could be stated any better.

And by the way, Mssrs. Sarbanes and Oxley, who along with the arsehats at NTP are doing their best to ruin the business world, are hereby granted unfettered access to my buttocks for the purposes of labial contact.