A day after the courts denied RIM's request to stay the BlackBerry case until the USPTO finished reviewing NTP patents, the USPTO ruled that one of the two integral NTP patents probably isn't valid. Though the ruling is not final, it was especially crucial because the patent in question is one of the two that the USPTO had previously found RIM guilty of violating. NTP still has a chance to respond to the decision, but the USPTO indicated that decision will likely become a final rejection of the claim.
Apparently, NTP's patent was invalidated after the company's lawyers were obligated to inform the USPTO of Telenor, a Norwegian company that had secured the technology prior to NTP's claims. RIM now finds itself in a substantially better position than it was Wednesday evening. However, it still must appeal to the Supreme Court to get a delay and wait for a final USPTO ruling on all claims, however long that may take.
For more on the NTP, RIM case:
- read this blog entry
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