RIM, NTP settle for $612 million ... finally

Blackberry users can at last breathe a sigh of relief: RIM and NTP have reached a settlement in their long-running patent dispute, with RIM agreeing to pay NTP $612.5 million. According to RIM, the settlement has been approved by the court, and NTP's suit has been dismissed, which means this settlement is likely to last a little longer than an earlier one, in which RIM agreed to pay NTP $450 million. That settlement eventually collapsed, leading to the most recent round of hearings (and NTP's little $162 million premium). Now that this battle is over, we're ready to see how RIM does in a real fight: the coming battle with Microsoft for dominance of the push email market (and we wouldn't rule out another lawsuit from RIM -- this time as a plaintiff, with the US Patent and Trademark Office on the other side).

[Elias G. @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:39PM]

Damn, and they were so close to having all the patents invalidated! Maybe they put a clause where they get a refund if all patents are invalidated.

-- Elias

[Shmoe @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:42PM]

I was hoping for a shutdown of the stupid crackberries. MS will just have to take care of it.

[Shmoe's mom @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:47PM]

Honey....it's time to come take your pills again!

[bradtwitty @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:49PM]

I got a CNN breaking news e-mail, saw it was about a Blackberry settlement in the Gmail Manager for Portable Firefox snippet, hit up engadget and got the real story, from the guys that really know and care. Thanks engadget.

[MR @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:51PM]

I was tempted to get a blackberry but now that RIM settles the lawsuit with NTP, I'm having a second thought.
Really nothing against RIM, but why the heck would I want to support the technology parasite in NTP by buying RIM services, which pays loyalties to them?

[Excuse me for my terrible grammar @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:53PM]

Maybe Blackberry users would have to pay $100 a month for blackberry service. *shurg*

[netboolie @ Mar 3rd 2006 5:54PM]

I am glad this is finally over. Blackberry is the best email handheld out there period.

[chris @ Mar 3rd 2006 6:05PM]

if by "best" you mean "stupidly anoying", sure. though to be fair the "stupidly anoying" part is probably more the fault of corperate configs. my dad has one and hates it. just to make a call he has to enter is 8+ character letters+numbers secure password into the thing, not just to read email which would make sense, but just to make a damned phone call. oh it gets worse. it makes noise for every email that comes in, and he can't turn it off without turning the whole thing off, which means that in order to sleep he has to turn off his cell phone, which means no emergency calls.

yeah, no thanks.

[Tomas @ Mar 3rd 2006 6:09PM]

Sweet. Now I can have my Blackberry implanted and not have to worry about short-term obsolescence.

[Paul J. @ Mar 3rd 2006 6:15PM]

It's really baffling to me why RIM had to pay them a dime, all of the patents that the original lawsuit was brought based on have been declared totally invalid and rejected. I can't believe that this didn't render the lawsuit moot.

They got $612 million for what exactly? RIM didn't infringe on any patents, they were invalid.

[Billy @ Mar 3rd 2006 6:38PM]

chris, I'm sorry but your description of the Blackberry's difficulty to use is very inaccurate.
Whatever crazy stuff your dad has to do to place a call will depend on his companys setup(if they are utilizying a BES) as well as his carrier(tmobile, cingular,etc.). Also, all sounds are customizable and he can mute email notifications and the phone will still ring when recieving voice calls.

[Ali @ Mar 3rd 2006 6:56PM]

Not that I believe that NTP deserves this generousity, or that their patents are worth even a penny, but RIM mishandled the case from the beginning and now they are paying for their mistakes...just goes to show that they still need a lot of time to become a mature player...

[Hamson @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:22PM]

How come on Engadget Mobile you can't post a comment unless you're on the last comments page? Or is that just me?

[Virtuous @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:27PM]

RIM wanted to spare its US customers from having to update every single Blackberry. This goes to show how dysfunctional our patent system has become. The patent system is in dire need of a complete overhaul.

[Broo @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:28PM]

#9 in agreeance with #12- all of the notifications options (sound, vibrate, etc) are adjustable via the profiles- unless your dad had a very old unit; I have a custom profile setup for 'phone only' which only makes a noise when the phone rings- otherwise it is silent as a brick.

the password complexity is configured by the company's blackberry admin- so blame them for that. we use a four letter password and we can use things like zzzc or three spaces and a z. even better is that our blackberries are configured to completey wipe the unit after 10 failed password attempts- you have to reload the firmware to get them back!

the new blackberrie OSes allow you to make calls without unlocking- but you do not get access to the address book as that would make it fairly insecure if the unit was lost.

[Mike @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:15PM]

I'm angry about this result. NTP is nothing but a bunch of leeches, and I think it's a travesty that they managed to get this far, much less wring a settlement from RIM. Not only is NTP completely undeserving (hey, they make nothing! their entire business model is to find patents then sue successful companies with the aim of getting a settlement!), but this will now embolden other "patent holding firms" to do the same. The end result is the consumer loses, because the costs are transferred to us.

[Jay @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:17PM]

IT's a one time payment, NO ROYALTIES or any back end. They are a public company, so they have an obligation their you know who, da shareholders. They would of lost more money if they didn't settle,volitale stock and loss of confidence amongst their money making enterprise costomers.

YOU roll da dice baby that's the name of the game in BIG money deals.
yes NTP are a Fucking parasites. They sit on patents and wait for the bate to bite than they spin their web on ya...not cool

[Ziggs @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:22PM]

Just remember that some of the most successful species on earth are parasites. Mosquitos will rule the earth someday! (as long as they have a host species to feed on...)

[Chris Kivi @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:32PM]

Well this is a victory for those who create great ideas and about those who take advntage of something which is not rightfully theirs, and an incredible victory for imaginative people everywhere, who can go forward with their ideas, and not be too afraid of getting screwed! $612 Million buys a great life.

[Chris Kivi @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:36PM]

Well this is a victory for those who create great ideas and about those who take advntage of something which is not rightfully theirs, and an incredible victory for imaginative people everywhere, who can go forward with their ideas, and not be too afraid of getting screwed! $612 Million buys a great life, and for those who say money doesn't buy happiness: F-OFF!

[Leumas @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:42PM]

Great! Now that this is over, I wonder if other companies, like Palm, will integrate their software onto their OS? I know Palm has been patiently waiting for this lawsuit to blow over...

[Ali @ Mar 3rd 2006 11:05PM]

Chris, just so you know, NTP didn't "create great ideas"...all their patents have been rejected at least twice 'cause they are either too obvious, or there has been prior art. Furthermore, they don't even use the patents to make something useful...just slowing down further innovation. Greedy pigs!
Just because the whole rejection process will take a long time RIM decided to settle.

[Andrew @ Mar 4th 2006 12:26AM]

sweet lord this sux... I was hoping to get rid of these blasted things. Literally one of the worst things my employer did was implement these worthless pda email crackberries. Second only to using Lotus Notes - which can only be described as painfull. As far as the 'real' battle goes reguarding MS... I hope MS gives them lube - its going to be rough. We currently pay nearly $400 a piece for the these crappy things... same price I can get a kickass smartphone with OMG a touchscreen, external storage AND a usable interface. Forget that damn 1980's scroll wheel. Good riddance.

[Martin @ Mar 4th 2006 1:52AM]

Have you people forgotten about this article?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060221.wpatentlyabsured-rim21/BNStory/RIM2006/home/?pageRequested=all

This is not a plain vanilla case.

[uomolinux @ Mar 4th 2006 1:54AM]

Your right no.17. NTP is actually a firm regrouping bunch of lawyer with main product is to sue successful companies over obscure paten. The result: You will have to pay more for your Blackberry and other products in the future, customers are the #1 loser here, greedy American Lawyer the #1 winners.

[John @ Mar 4th 2006 8:47AM]

This should have been settled a long time ago, but RIM wouldn't pay NTP, and so they put their customers on this up and down rollercoaster ride of a potential service shut down.

[Chad LaFarge @ Mar 4th 2006 9:54AM]

Num 25 is flat wrong... RIM agreed to settle before, it was NTP that backed out! As long as NTP is still appealing the patents, this also still leaves other providers vulnerable to lawsuits.

RIM had a winning case, and could have prevented any future threats for the industry, but they caved, even AFTER the patents were invalidated.

This is a real shame.

[Piel @ Mar 4th 2006 10:24AM]

Too bad - I wanted to see RIM go down. Now I guess my buddy Bill will have to do it...especially when more Windows Mobile devices come out.

[David @ Mar 4th 2006 10:30AM]

Chillax people.

RIM did what it could to secure its interests. How did it know the bastards at the American NTP were going to try and soak it for whatever it could. The point is this thing is behind them and they can continue to battling it out with MS.

I think RIM should have a chance, not just because it's Canadian technology (haha) but for that fact of do we really want Microsoft absorbing another market? It's already huge as it is.

[Chris @ Mar 4th 2006 11:07AM]

ALI - Companies don't normally settle for more than a 1/2 billion dollars for no substantial reason. Think about it for more than one second please.

[billms @ Mar 4th 2006 2:01PM]

Wow - lots of cluelessness around here. The NTP patents are far from dead, final rejections are a common result on the way to final patents, not a rare exception, NTP could have easily stretched out appeals on patents that ultimately do die for years, and in the mean time the judge could have shut freaking RIM down in the US on any date he choose. Anybody who thinks it sucks that RIM 'caved' when they were 'winning' really would have loved that sweet portal cabin on the titanic.

[Haha! @ Mar 4th 2006 2:18PM]

"I think RIM should have a chance, not just because it's Canadian technology"

What does RIM being Canadian have to do with anything. Keep quiet Jingo, the Adults are talking.

[Ali @ Mar 4th 2006 2:57PM]

Chris, I'm not pulling the 1B out of my pocket...it was the consensus among the analyst. Any yes, there was a very good reason to pay good money for this: this is a huge market that's growing very rapidly...RIM didn't wanna be left out.

[Rotax @ Mar 4th 2006 5:28PM]

There is another company flying under the radar, that is developing rapidly their push email solution for a wider and wider range of phones. The best thing is you can use a desktop client with enterprise security if your company does not have the enterprise server and it does not matter if your cellular provider has the service or not (several do, such as Cingular's XpressMail) They handle POP3, IMAP, and Lotus Notes Domino (it works very well) - SEVEN http://www.seven.com

[Pro @ Mar 5th 2006 2:04PM]

The higher price of this settlement was mitigated by ushering in an end to the negative effect the NTP lawsuit was having on RIM's business.

[Tex @ Mar 6th 2006 11:03AM]

Really I just think that everything and anything Canadian is lame. The people are friendly and annoying and speak in a tongue that is not quite American but just enough of a dialect change to really grate the skin. They have this inferiority complex cause they live next door to the greatest nation on earth and feel insulted if you call them americans. they are small minded and fight over 1 canadian dollar and who owes it to who. and really toronto is a copy of new york and montreal is a copy of gaza.

RIM messed up because they couldnt handle the heat in the kitchen and tried to play the judge for a fool - filing the same motion four times and having it rejected four times... yah bad form.

i am sick of small minded people playing a big boys game and not getting that big boys rules also apply.

good on ya NTP and i wish RIM would just go back to the frigid north next to that other lame company NORTEL.

[Sam @ Mar 6th 2006 1:09PM]

Wow, this is very good news, I for one am happy to see this done with. Regardless, Blackberry users are very happy with these phones. I think NTP is a bunch of VERY greedy people and I am sick of hearing about this case. Next on the agenda? RIM will be sueing Microsoft for copycat technology. The saga will continue...as the race for the best wireless technology goes on... Regardless of the outcome, Smartphones and new technology are rapidly coming and there are so many more choices that RIM is going to lose market share anyways...

[werdmodo @ Mar 24th 2006 3:28PM]

Now NTP can get down to business and slow down competitors like Good technology.