Why are they talking about shutting down the BlackBerry wireless network?
Because about two years ago BlackBerry vendor Research In Motion (RIM – of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), lost a patent infringement lawsuit in US courts brought by a company called NTP. The court awarded NTP damages amounting to US$53.7 million and issued an injunction that would shut down the operation of the BlackBerry network in the US. RIM got a stay of execution for the injunction, but NTP is expected to seek to have it reimposed later this month. What is NTP? NTP is a holding company created in 1992 to manage certain patents belonging to Thomas Campana, an electrical engineer. The firm operates out of a lawyer’s office in McLean, Virginia. It has licensed patents to other companies and has two dozen shareholders, mostly lawyers in the Washington area. In 2002, Campana sued RIM for infringing five of his patents and prevailed in the original trial and on appeal. He died in June 2004, but NTP has carried on the suit. What does NTP have against RIM? They want royalties for the patents
