Bye Bye BlackBerry?

[WhiteTara]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/technology/03blackberry.html
OTTAWA, Dec. 2 - What if your BlackBerry screen went dark?

To executives like Douglas M. Steenland of Northwest Airlines, the idea of doing business without a BlackBerry is about as appealing as reverting to rotary dial phones and Telex machines.
"It's the proverbial blessing and curse," Mr. Steenland said of his BlackBerry, which sends e-mail messages wirelessly. "It's a blessing because it liberates you from the office. It's a curse because there's no escape."

That is why there was so much anxiety throughout corporate America over this week's news that a long-running patent infringement battle between the maker of BlackBerry, Research In Motion, and NTP, a tiny patent holding company, might cause a service shutdown, perhaps within a month.

Indeed, the prospect of life without BlackBerries is so frightening to Northwest - a heavy user if ever there was one - that the airline immediately demanded a conference call with R.I.M. executives and one is scheduled for Tuesday.

[benburch]

1. Here we see the IDIOCY of the patent laws as they exist.

More of this is coming. This does NOT encourage invention.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. RIM used a technology they did not own or have the rights to

I see no problem with them getting smacked for it.

[Solo_in_MD]

2. This has been working through the courts for some time

but only recently hit the MSM.

RIM is offering a substantial amount for licenses but NTP wants more. From a legal side NTP is the clear winner and RIM failed to do due diligence. One of the pay them now or pay them later kind of things. One should not build ones business on technology you do not have the right to use.

I *had* a couple of patents I could not afford to defend. I feel strongly on this one......

[northzax]

4. not just used,

the patent is central to their business model. This was not an inadvertent minor use of the patented material, without the patented material, RIM would not exist.

five years ago, RIM could have settled this for $200 million. Now it'll cost them a billion.

[WhiteTara]

5. I had a patent that

I defended, but at what cost? That business is gone, maybe I could have just out marketed them, but who knows.