NTP Patents to be thrown out, RIM exhales
December 21st, 2005 | by amarfresh |A few weeks ago it looked that RIM’s Blackberry email service may have gone dark. However, it seems that the USPTO is backtracking, after realizing that NTP’s patents are “bad”.
This move is very unconventional for the Patent Office, but no doubt stems from the very public case which is putting the Patent Office itself in the spotlight of blame. If RIM is forced to pay $1B because they were held for ransom by bad patents, Techdirt has asked, “Can RIM sue the USPTO for a billion or more due to negligence?” The USPTO is worried that NTP is winning the court case based on what they now know to be bad patents, but patents which they mistakenly granted. Not only is this massively unfair to RIM, but the credibility of the entire Intellectual Property system in the US is in jeopardy.
Good and bad. Good that the USPTO is realizing that they issued a bogus patent (most likely because they didnt’ understand what was being patented.) Good, because perhaps the USPTO will likely rescind other bogus patents. Bad, the fact that patents are no longer secure. Bad, that so much time and money was wasted on this. Oh, like all legal snafus… good for lawyers.