Mark Evans

Research in Motion won another victory yesterday when the U.S. Patent and Trade Office rejected another of NTP's patents - the second of the five patents at the heart of NTP's dispute against RIM. The question, however, is whether the decision matters and/or whether Judge James Spencer will let it play a part in his decision over whether to impose an injunction next month that will stop sales of Blackberry devices and service in the U.S. Judge Spencer made it clear recently he's not paying any heed to decisions by the U.S. Patent Office even though RIM appears to be knocking down NTP's key patents on a regular basis. The question now is if Judget Spencer does impose an injunction, does RIM implement its mysterious “work-around” to maintain service and sales, and then patiently wait for the U.S. Patent Office to reject the rest of NTP's patents? Does RIM risk having an injunction imposed and delay reaching a settlement with NTP in the hope all of NTP's patents will be rejected? It seems like a huge game of chicken right now with both sides trying to see how they're willing to go. Stay tuned……
Update: TechDirt asks why the courts can't wait until the Patent Office finishes its examination of the NTP patents. I suspect it's because no one knows how long it will take, and the court don't want to injure the plaintiff (NTP).