BROWSING: NTP

Ericsson, ZTE patent charges underscore IPR value

ZTE Corp. said it will initiate “patent invalidation procedures” against Ericsson (ERIC), after the world's largest infrastructure provider filed patent-infringement lawsuits against the Chinese vendor in three countries.The patent dispute centers on handset and network patents related to GSM and W-CDMA technology. Ericsson...

In IPR disputes, patent lawyers hold all the cards

I should have been a patent lawyer. Actually, everyone in the wireless industry should be glad I did not become a patent lawyer because there is little reason to think I would have been a good one. Trying to piece together all of the moving...

Worst of the Week: Big Brother a Canuck, eh?

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....

NTP accuses six heavyweights in lawsuit over wireless e-mail patent

If there's one thing NTP Inc. is really good at, it's protecting patents with a fervor and winning handsome treasure along the way. Just ask BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM).After battling it out in court for the better part of five years over...

Mformation takes RIM back to court: Mobile device management firm alleges patent infringement

A mobile device management software company has filed a lawsuit against Research in Motion Ltd. alleging infringement of two patents.Mformation Technologies Inc. filed the lawsuit against the Canadian maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphones in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California....

Still fighting, NTP sues Alltel over patents

Alltel Communications L.L.C. is the latest major mobile-phone carrier to be tagged with a patent infringement suit by NTP Inc., the Virginia-based patent holding firm that scored a $612.5 million settlement with Research in Motion Ltd. in 2006 before setting its sights on top...

NTP sets its sight on carriers: Patent holder files suit against Big 4

NTP Inc. is at it again.The Virginia-based patent-holding company last week filed patent-infringement lawsuits against all four tier-one U.S. carriers, claiming the operators are violating eight patents for mobile e-mail services. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. declined to comment last week; AT&T Mobility...

The Week in Review

Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks. Check below for news about carriers, handset...

NTP sets sights on AT&T, Sprint Nextel, VZW

NTP Inc. jumped back into the litigation ring, filing patent-infringement suits against three of the four largest U.S. carriers.The Virginia-based patent-holding company targeted AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., reportedly claiming the operators are violating eight of its patents for mobile...

Mobie search space heats up-this time over patents

It's beginning to look like all that money being poured into mobile search may end up in the pockets of patent lawyers.Shares of Local.com Corp. skyrocketed last week after the online search company said it had received a patent for ad-supported mobile search. The...

Palm’s outlook, RIM’s results: Palm quashes M&A talk while RIM deals with fickle investors

Both companies' stock has been bid up, though for opposite reasons, and both companies seek to expand their traditional markets by intruding on the others' turf. They both make smartphones for a dedicated cadre of end users in North America, and they're expanding to...

Blowout expectations dashed, Wall Street sends RIM downward

The perversity of Wall Street came into focus after Research In Motion Ltd. delivered solid fourth-quarter fiscal 2006 earnings yesterday that were still below some expectations. It's all about emotion and overblown expectations, it seems.Investors apparently had already driven up the price of RIM's...

NTP sets its sights on Palm

RICHMOND, Va.—Patent-holding company NTP Inc. said it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Treo maker Palm Inc. that claims the company’s mobile e-mail products infringe on NTP’s patents. NTP filed the claim in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. NTP...

Open standards to steer mobile e-mail’s future

Research In Motion Ltd. will likely continue to dominate the high-end mobile e-mail market, according to Strategy Analytics. But the growing number of open-standard service providers will drive the market in the long term, the market research firm predicted. The BlackBerry maker's market share...

RIM losing share, but still growing

BOSTON—Research In Motion Ltd. has lost traction in the mobile e-mail market this year, but will likely continue to increase subscribers, according to a report from Strategy Analytics. The survey found the BlackBerry’s market share dipped five points to 59 percent in the first...

BCGI settles patent litigation for $55M

Boston Communications Group Inc. settled its long-running dispute with Freedom Wireless Inc., agreeing to pay $55.3 million to the patent-holding firm.BCGI suffered a potentially fatal blow last year when a Massachusetts U.S. District Court ruled the company had infringed on two patents for wireless...

Funambol banking on open source to navigate wireless e-mail maze

While a handful of mobile e-mail service providers seem most at ease in the courtroom, Fabrizio Capobianco is comfortable on the tightrope. Capobianco is chief executive officer of Funambol Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based software developer that offers a mobile push e-mail service based...

Visto to enter Chinese push e-mail market

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Visto Corp. entered mobile e-mail fray in China as it announced it would join a Chinese partner in providing push e-mail service to enterprises and professionals in the world’s largest mobile market. The California company will join Lenovo Chinaweal System & Service...

RIM wins InPro lawsuit

WATERLOO, Ontario—A U.S. appeals court ruled in favor of Research In Motion Ltd. in the company’s patent case with InPro II Licensing S.a.r.l., according to RIM. InPro filed a claim against RIM in 2003 that alleged the Blackberry maker infringed upon patents having to...

Visto sets its sights on RIM patent infringements

Mobile e-mail continues to be a largely untapped market, but the patent litigation industry in wireless is alive and well. Visto Corp.'s lawyers mobilized once again last week as the developer set its sites on Research In Motion Ltd., claiming the BlackBerry maker is...

RIM attorneys fire back at Visto

WATERLOO, Ontario—Research In Motion Ltd. kept its patent attorneys busy this week, filing a countersuit against fellow mobile e-mail service provider Visto Corp. The BlackBerry maker took all of one business day to fire back against Visto, seeking a declaration from a federal court...

RIM eagerly announces talks in China

Research In Motion Ltd. said that its talks with China Mobile, China's leading wireless carrier, were "going well" for establishing wireless e-mail service in the world's largest telecommunications market. According to RIM's Asia Pacific Vice President Norm Lo, the company expects to close a...

RIM eagerly announces talks in China

SINGAPORE—Research In Motion Ltd. announced today that its talks with China Mobile, China’s leading wireless carrier, were "going well" for establishing wireless e-mail service in the world’s largest telecommunications market. According to RIM’s Asia Pacific Vice President Norm Lo, the company expects to close...

Patently outraged

James Balsillie, chairman and chief executive officer of Research in Motion Ltd., cut right to the chase. You'd expect no-nonsense talk from a fellow still fuming from having to write a fat, $612.5 million check to a small Virginia patent-holding firm to make it...