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RIM/NTP Lawsuit - Blackberry Shutdown? December 2, 2005

The folks at Blackberry Cool have this most succinctly in their post titled “Calm Down Folks, No Possibility of Blackberry Shutdown”.

I don’t know if I’d go so far as “no possibility”, because there’s always an outside chance, and strange things have happened in the world of litigation before, but generally speaking, I agree with them - that’s why we haven’t gone any further at my company with our contingency plans, which involved the Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. In the post above, they say:

Our prediction is that RIM and NTP will settle for a huge amount, possibly in the 1 billion range so that both parties can move on from the case that has latest for 5 years.

I think they’re right - the only variable is going to be the number. Will this affect RIM long-term - yes, how can it not? Right out of the gate, that’s a lot of cash to pay out. But in the longer-term, will it make them want to innovate, compete, and maintain their market share? Again - how can it not? I have to admit that I’m looking forward to the end of this dispute, and everyone getting back to the business of technology, instead of the business of law.

Related Links Around The Web:
Michael Sampson - Thoughts on RIM vs NTP
Mobile Enterprise Weblog - The biggest story for enterprise mobility in 2005
Mobile Enterprise Weblog - RIM: The Buzzards Are Watching (timeline of events)
Patently-O: Patent Law Blog - Blackberry Patent Settlement Found Unenforceable (includes links to the court documents)

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New Category - Blackberry

I’ve added “Blackberry” as a sub-category to “Technology”, as I seem to be writing about it regularly.  I’m going to go back and update previous posts to reflect this category, in addition to “Technology”.  Hopefully, that won’t push those back out to the RSS feed - sorry if it means you get dupes; it’s just a one-off correction.


links for 2005-12-02