Is RIM Conceding Defeat?
The RIM-NTP patent saga drags on: after its latest legal setback, RIM was in court again today asking a judge to enforce the $450 million settlement the companies initially agreed to in March. It would seem that since RIM’s efforts to delay the case further have been exhausted, with the judge saying today he wouldn’t put things on hold pending a full review of NTP’s patents by the US patent office, RIM thinks things aren’t going its way. RIM’s been stringing the process out in hopes that the patents in question will eventually be rejected, a promising strategy if the threat of an injunction barring them from providing service in the US hasn’t looming over them in the meantime. But the judge in the case isn’t going to wait for the patent process to play out (which could take years), echoing lots of people’s thoughts when he said, “I’ve spent enough of my life and my time on NTP and RIM.” So faced with the $450 million settlement, or having its service in the US shut down, RIM wants to pay up.
