Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the indispensable and ubiquitous Blackberry, settled a four-year long patent disbute with Virginia's NTP for $ 450 million. NTP's prior patents covered, inter alia, an "Electronic mail system with RF communications to mobile processors."
According to James Hurst, a patent litigator at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago, "In terms of patent settlements with a lump sum payment, this is as big as I have ever heard of." Still, the news that NTP in return agreed to license its patents without any on-going royalty caused RIM's stock to jump $12.56 to $79.65, adding $2-billion to the company's market capitalization.
The settlement came after a 2003 Virginia federal district court ruling that Blackberry had infringed several patents, and awarded NTP $54 million in damages plus an 8.6 percent royalty on all the revenue from U.S. Blackberry sales. Last December, the Federal Circuit upheld most of the patent infringement claims, sending the case back to the lower court for limited reconsideration. The parties soon jointly will file to end the litigation.
NTP's victorious counsel is Jim Wallace of my law firm. I'm thrilled--but that's all I'm allowed to say.
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