NTP Sues Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that following in the wake of their patent suit against Research in Motion (RIM), NTP has filed suit against Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile for infringing on several patents. All of the patents in question relate to the delivery of email on mobile devices. "Five of the eight patents being used in the telco cases were the subject of NTP's 2001 patent suit against Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry. In November 2002, a jury found that RIM infringed upon NTP's patents. The case continued to make headlines until 2006, when RIM agreed to pay NTP a settlement of $612.5 million, nearly four years after RIM had first been found guilty of infringing on NTP's patents."

Sigh.

[SatanicPuppy]

This is why their crap should have been thrown out in the first place. They had no product, they had no real IP, and instead of being laughed out of court, they were allowed to rip off 600 million from a company that actually made it happen.

And now? Now they have a nice deep warchest to go after other people for violating their crap patents. If the goal was to create a spurious patent litigation industry, mission accomplished. Way to go legal system, way to go.

Re:Whoops...

[ackthpt]

NTP might have had a hold over RIM because their business was depending on continued service, but NTP just picked a fight with multi-billion dollar businesses who are not going to roll over. This is just like SCO picking on IBM. When you fight a well funded opponent you better make damn sure you got the goods because their *multiple* law firms will eat your lunch.

The telcos will have it easier, too as there's no precedence, with RIM it was actually an out of court settlment. Still, IBM had a long, long battle with SCO. Depending upon how much NTP asks for they telcos may just write them a cheque with no ongoing revenue due NTP.

Well hopefully this will at least spark change.

[FauxReal]

Maybe after getting hit by this large corporations will concede that some changes should be made; now that the shoe is on the other foot.

Re:Well hopefully this will at least spark change.

[Darth Liberus]

A lot of large corporations are already begging to change the system. IIRC only the pharmaceutical industry still thinks the existing patent system is a good idea, and that's only because nobody has sued them for infringing on something like "method for separating a salt into its ionic components using a dihydrogen monoxide solvent".

Re:Whoops...

[drapeau06]

RIM might not be as big as those US telcos, but they are big enough and surely fought pretty hard. Their most recent annual report showed revenue in the year of over 3 billion USD and their current market cap is well over 45 billion USD... should be enough to hire an expensive lawyer or two.

Re:Whoops...

[Dunbal]

their *multiple* law firms will eat your lunch.

      Not to mention their *multiple* politicians. Because after all, NO ONE lobbies as hard and as well as the telcos... Perhaps NTP is doing everyone a favor with this suicidal action. Maybe now finally a little balance and conscience will be brought to patent law. Or perhaps I'm dreaming again and what will really happen is that telcos and Washinton will find a really ingenous way to screw NTP AND the public.

Re:Whoops...

[Trailer Trash]

This is just like SCO picking on IBM.

Unfortunately, it is vastly different in one key aspect: NTP has at least 10 times the cash to throw at this that SCO had. Also, NTP has no other money-losing departments to support, this is it.

As I said back when RIM settled, the only thing worse than a patent troll is a patent troll with $600M in the bank. This is why.

Re:Whoops...

[MightyMartian]

The telcos will have it easier, too as there's no precedence, with RIM it was actually an out of court settlment. Still, IBM had a long, long battle with SCO. Depending upon how much NTP asks for they telcos may just write them a cheque with no ongoing revenue due NTP.

It was a long fight, but how much work was it for IBM's lawyers?

As to NTP, they have a bigger war chest, thanks to the patent extortion of RIM. Still, I'll wager the telcos don't back down.

Re:Sigh.

[DustyShadow]

except for a beeper, your message was intended for a phone. I'm pretty sure the email on a phone part of the patent isn't what's novel about it. The novel part is that the email, which is a message not intended to go to a phone, gets pushed automatically to it.

Re:Whoops...

[lelitsch]

There is a huge difference: RIM is a Canadian company. This simple fact limited them in three very important aspects:

(1) Many US Courts are biased in favor of US litigants.
(2) As a foreign company, RIM is severely limited in the amount of campaign contributions to US politicians.
(3) As a Canadian company, RIM does not have a home town congressman and senator.

All of these limitations are not unique to the US, they largely apply to US companies suing or getting sued overseas. See the different treatment Microsoft got in the US and the EU cases.

Weren't Those Patents Ruled Invalid?

[florescent_beige]

I seem to remember this [engadget.com]. IIRC NTP won on a technicality, something like they got a ruling of infringement before RIM got the patents invalidated. So how are they back for more with the same patents?