No delay in BlackBerry ruling
on Oct 26, 2005 at 4:54 pm
A Canadian company that makes the hand-held BlackBerry devices, allowing users to get wireless access to e-mail, messaging and Internet links, failed on Wednesday to get a delay of a ruling that it infringed on patents for integrating electronic mail with wireless networks. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., refused, without comment, to temporarily block a Federal Circuit ruling that could lead to a new court order banning sales of BlackBerry devices in the U.S. and stopping wireless e-mail services to BlackBerry users. (Roberts order came in denial of a stay application filed by BlackBerry’s maker, Research in Motion, Ltd., application 05-A-357.)
Research in Motion has been locked for years in a patent dispute with NTP Inc., a Virginia-based company that holds patents on technology that enables e-mail systems to be integrated with wireless networks, giving markedly greater mobility to communication via computer. RIM contends that the patents should never have been issued, arguing that the technology is only a tweaking of “prior art.” Besides fighting in court, RIM has been pursuing challenges to the NTP patents at the U.S. Patent Office.
RIM is planning to appeal to the Supreme Court in a challenge to an August ruling by the Federal Circuit, upholding some but not all of NTP’s claims of infringement. Among other issues the company is planning to raise is the application of U.S. patent law to its wireless system even though some parts of that system function only in Canada. The Federal Circuit has given a fairly expansive interpretation of the reach of patent laws beyond U.S. borders — not only in the RIM-NTP case, but also in a major dispute between Microsoft Corp. and the University of California, which has won a $520 million infringement award based on global sales of Microsoft’s Windows operating system software with its Internet Explorer browser. (The Supreme Court may act as early as next Monday on an appeal by Microsoft challenging the damages award, and the beyond-the-borders application of U.S. patent law. That case is Microsoft v. Eolas Technologies, docket 05-288.)
In the BlackBerry case, the Federal Circuit ruling in August did not finally resolve the patent dispute. It upheld several infringement claims, overturned others, and ordered a U.S. District judge in Virginia to reconsider a royalty award that had continued to build up, reaching over $200 million, and to reconsider the order that essentially would shut down BlackBerry’s business in the U.S. When the case returns to that lower court, NTP executives have said, they will ask for a renewal of the injunction against BlackBerry services in this country. In the meantime, however, those activities may continue. About 75 percent of the company’s business is done in the U.S.
After a jury verdict against Research in Motion, the two companies reached a settlement of their dispute, but that has since broken down in disagreement between the two sides. The impact of the infringement dispute on that settlement may also be explored when the case returns to District Court.
