A ruling is expected very soon in the RIM-NTP patent dispute, as the judge has said he is unwilling to wait for the patent office to complete its review of NTP's patents. A ruling in NTP's favor could force RIM to pay huge damages and shut down BlackBerry service in the US. RIM claims to already have a backup email delivery system in place that does not require licenses to NTP's patents. For those of you having a hard time keeping up with the case, here's a timeline of key events. Article