NTP-Blackberry saga continues

NTP certainly has Research in Motion stuck in a corner these days. With all the news swirling around that U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer may order a shut down of most of RIM's BlackBerry sales and services in the U.S., a settlement with NTP is likely. This is so despite the fact that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office took the surprising step of reaching out and calling both RIM and NTP to notify them that it is likely to reject all of NTP's patents at the heart of this intense battle. NTP, of course, says it believes its case is sound because Judge Spencer has indicated he's going to decide on an injunction despite what the Patent Office said.

RIM claims its has a backup technology that will keep BlackBerry emails running without infringing NTP's patents. But some analysts have questioned how well it would work. NTP has also said it would challenge the workaround in court. How much more bad publicity can RIM take? Maybe RIM can recoup its money by suing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

For more about the NTP-RIM saga:
- read this article in The Wall Street Journal (sub. required)