A U.S. appeals court revised its earlier ruling in the patent battle between Research In Motion Ltd. and patent-holding company NTP Inc., reducing the number of patent claims under litigation. The court also remanded the case back to a lower court, a move that could further prolong and complicate the 3-year-old conflict.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., reversed its previous ruling in the case, in which it affirmed that RIM infringed on 16 claims covering five of NTP’s patents. In its revised ruling, the appeals court said RIM does not infringe on nine of those 16 claims. The appeals court sent the remaining seven claims back to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
With the case now back in the district court, the injunction issue returns to the surface. NTP said it again will ask the district court to order RIM to stop selling its BlackBerry wireless e-mail products in the United States. RIM cautioned that “it ultimately will be up to the court to decide these matters, and there can be no assurance of a favorable outcome of any litigation.”
A jury in 2002 ruled that RIM was infringing on NTP’s patents and awarded the patent-holding company royalties on BlackBerry sales that now total $175 million. The case appeared to have come to an end earlier this year, when RIM and NTP announced a tentative settlement. However, the settlement fell apart soon after, as each side blamed the other for misunderstandings over the details of the agreement.
