NTP slams RIM on eve of crucial hearing

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RIM co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie sarcastically fired back during a conference held by RBC Capital Markets on Thursday.

"I have so much power over the U.S. government that I persuaded them to wait three years to do office actions on a director-initiated re-examination. If I had so much power this would have been done two years ago," Balsillie said.

The delay was one of several "irregularities" the Patent Office has committed during the re-examination process, NTP said. It added that the office has handled its situation "vastly differently" than it has treated other companies embroiled in similar patent conflicts and that the re-examination process should have ended when a jury ruled in NTP's favor in 2002.

Patent Office spokeswoman Brigid Quinn said the company's allegations are "unfounded" and that the agency "is re-examining the NTP patents in accordance with all applicable rules and laws."

Many of NTP's assertions do have merit, at least in theory, said patent attorneys closely eyeing the case.

"The NTP patents survived trial, so it's true that these patents are valid," Jonathan Caplan, a partner in the intellectual property department at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel in New York, said in a telephone interview. "The issue today ultimately is whether the patents will survive the re-examination proceedings."

Thursday's press release is clearly a pointed public relations tactic intended to boost the company's standing among critics who have painted it as a "patent troll," said Greg Sueoka, chairman of the patent law group at Fenwick & West in San Francisco.

But both sides are guilty in their own ways of skewing the patent tussle to serve their interests, Sueoka said. "The spin on the RIM side is that the patents are invalid, and the spin on the NTP side is that RIM has had its day in court, which is true, and it's not entitled to re-examine the patents, which is not true."

CNET News.com's Tom Krazit contributed to this report.

[doctordrb]

NTP and RIM situation

One of the most glaring oversights in the ongoing discussion ogf this whole somewhat sordid business pertains to the legitimacy of intellectual property consolidation firms that exist for no reason other than to extort "license" fees from operators and developers of real products and services. Companies like NTP, that exist ONLY to consolidate intellectual property patents that it has NO intention of ever using in a product development or service offering, but that it has every intention of using to gain financial advantage from those that do, should be rendered invalid (even illegal, if necessary) by the FTC and our legal system.

The new mantra of IP/patents in the 21st century should be "If you own it, use it. If you own it and don't use it, lose it." Make the sale of same to non-developers/operators purely for the purpose of what amounts today to legal extortion, invalid or even illegal.

This would put firms like NTP out of business (good riddance), and make the patent issuance and use process much more straight forward for legitimate developers and operators.

P.S. I know - wishful thinking, but an issue that needs to be brought up until something is done about it, and we restore a bit of order to the process of innovation and (legitimate) intellectual property protection.

[thenet411]

I agree

NTP is nothing more than an extortionist. NTP will lose. Even if they win in the courts (which we won't see for several years) RIM has a work around. Then, with appeals and other legal wrangling, they can put off paying any damages the courts decide NTP is entitled to until the final amount is so small, it won't affect RIM's bottom line in the slightest. RIM will go on to make millions and NTP will still be there, holding their worthless patents.

[epiccollision]

Finally !

I'm about to cry...someone with a real clue..thank you..but unfortuately this smacks of a good idea and we all know how congress takes "good" ideas...now i feel sick...uuugggh who again is claiming democracy is the ulitmate answer..and yes there are better ways (proportional government anyone, a type of democracy i know but it has to better then this hill o crap)

[Too Old For IT]

RIM could just shut down tomorrow

... and to hell with the patent trolls at NTP. It has been done before when innovators get sick and tired of the system in the US.

Anyone besides me remember Number Nine video cards, and the like?

[regulator1956]

Patent Trolls ??

If I patent or copyright something and then set up a licensing company to negotiate fees, why am I a troll? The NTP patent guy died. His wife still owns a big chunk of NTP.

The NFL, MLB and NBA all have copyright
"trolls." If you want to use their stuff, you must pay a fee. If I own something, why am I a troll for stopping you from stealing it ??

[mpotter28]

patent trools

The first question is do they own it. It appears that the patent office is about to say no. I haven;t looked at the patents involved but like most of the ones issued these days that don;t meet even a loose definition of the trivial test or the prior art test. The reason NTP appears to a patent troll is they've never built a product and seem to be essentially lying under a bridge with a big club (the patents in question) and jump out from underneath their brige yelling I'm going to eat you(read take a large sum of money) or you can pay me a toll and I;ll play the same game on the next poor fool who comes along.
let's face it the patent system is fatally broken. They issue patents for the most trivial ideas and they only work for firms that have the money to play the game. Finally we'll never really know the truth in this situation as the lawyers on both sides are in a feeding frenzy and the more confusion they can sow the more money individual lawyers will make.