(legal) Setback for BlackBerry maker (possible shutdown in service)

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN/Reuters: Setback for BlackBerry maker
Judge refuses to enforce disputed patent deal, may ban BlackBerry sales; RIM shares tumble.
November 30, 2005


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. was dealt another legal setback in a key patent infringement case on Wednesday, raising pressure to settle or face a possible shutdown of its U.S. mobile e-mail service.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer denied a request by Research In Motion to enforce the terms of a disputed $450 million settlement reached earlier this year with patent holding company NTP Inc.

Now the judge will set up a hearing on whether RIM can keep selling or importing its BlackBerry hardware and software in the United States.

RIM (down $3.79 to $61.13, Research) stock, halted for the news, tumbled after reopening, sliding about 7 percent on Nasdaq and in Toronto.

RIM said in a statement that it would continue efforts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The company also reiterated that it has prepared a software upgrade that can be used to work around the disputed patents....


http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/30/technology/rim.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Nite Owl]

1. Always wanted one of those

Just read another article on the court decision

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&guid=%7B8922DBEE%2DE2E4%2D4350%2DB026%2D83DC7A87A6BE%7D


Of course, most analysts think this move will simply result in a new settlement, and Research in Motion has said that if it ever was confronted with an injunction against U.S. service, it would be able to deploy a temporary software solution to keep us all pecking and clacking. Also, there would be no shortage of handheld competitors ready to pounce should the investment bankers and corporate honchos of the world suddenly wake up one morning to find their BlackBerry devices had gone dark.

But the possibility that all the "crackberry" addicts -- myself included -- would suddenly have to go back to living in the relative stone age of desktop email conjures up some fascinating scenarios.

Would Wall Street grind to a halt as hard-drinking, hard-dining dealmakers rushed back to their office computers? What about the federal government? And would that be a good thing? Would we all start talking to each other again in public? Or would we simply settle into a technology-addled snit, like we do when our servers freeze or our security cards don't work?

Most importantly, how would this impact the debate over intelligent design? After finally discovering an evolutionary reason for why we have thumbs, will we all now have to accept that our new reason for existence -- to send email -- is simply a flaw in the grand design of a supposedly all-knowing and all-powerful being? Like bringing Democracy to Iraq?

[jayfish]

2. US Patent And Copyright Law.

The suppressors of innovation.

Jay