The U.S. patent office has
rejected a key patent held by NTP Inc. that gives effect to its massive
lawsuit against Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone. The
rejection of the patent may substantially harm the NTP case.
NTP in 2001 sued RIM for patent infringement
and in 2002 a jury said NTP should get 5.7% of
U.S. BlackBerry sales, which the judge later increased to 8.55%.
The judge in the case issued an injunction
against RIM in 2003 but held off on its
enforcement during RIM's appeals, which are nearing the end of the legal
process. There are more than 3 million BlackBerry users in the
United States, including government and emergency workers..
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