BlackBerry Battle: RIM/NTP Patent Case Takes New Turn
BlackBerry-maker RIM could soon find itself under new legal pressure. Lawyers for NTP, the company with which RIM settled a high-profile patent dispute for more than $600 million in 2006, are reportedly seeking more information regarding how a pact between the BlackBerry-maker and the U.S. Justice Department affected the case.
CIO
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If you're a long-time BlackBerry user or "CrackBerry addict," you very likely remember a time just a few years ago when the continued existence of your precious handheld--and its addictive "push" e-mail technology--were in question due to a high-profile lawsuit between Research In Motion (RIM) and patent company NTP.
That multi-year case ended in 2006 in a settlement, with RIM shelling out some $612.5 million to satisfy NTP's patent infringement claims. And that was that...at least until this month when the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals heard a Freedom of Information Act-based (FOIA) lawsuit from NTP, meant to unearth more detail about the relationship between RIM and the U.S. Department of Justice at the time of the settlement, Law.com reports.
It's no secret now that the U.S. government is one of RIM's largest and most valued customers; RIM's devices and associated corporate infrastructure have long been the choice of IT departments that require the strongest security safeguards available. And the Justice Department fits that description.
In fact, RIM gained its reputation as the most secure enterprise mobility option largely because of its continued work with various international governments and the security certifications that came from said relationships.
But right around the time that RIM and NTP reached a settlement agreement, NTP reportedly discovered that RIM was closer to the Justice Department than NTP previously understood.
To make a long, boring complex story short(er), a Richmond, Va., jury found in 2002 that RIM had violated various NTP patents. RIM appealed the decision, and in 2005, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit panel issued two rulings that ended up sending the case back to court, Law.com says.
(Check out the BlackBerry on the Edge page for our past coverage of the RIM/NTP patent proceedings.)
Also in 2005, right around the time that the appeal court handed down the rulings, RIM's external legal counsel allegedly reached out to the Department of Justice to see if it could be convinced that continued BlackBerry service was in the public interest, since so many government officials employed the devices, Law.com reports.
In November of 2005, a common-interest agreement was reportedly reached between the RIM and U.S. government, and that same month, the Justice department intervened in the new case, filing a statement of interest that said, in a nutshell, that the government had a "substantial interest" in the continued availability of BlackBerry service, according to Law.com.
