Court Says Blackberries Don't All Need To Be Turned Off

from the ok,-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief dept

Last year we wrote about yet another one of these patent hoarding lawsuits, where a company named NTP won its patent lawsuit against RIM for their Blackberry device, and even had the judge issue an injunction banning RIM from selling any more Blackberries (though, this injunction was immediately stayed, pending appeal). The decision on that appeal has just come down, and while the patent infringement ruling holds, the injunction does not, and RIM can keep selling Blackberries, and Crackberry addicts all around can continue to require partners to carry Blackberries out of the belief that someone on the clock all the time can be more efficient than someone who actually, you know, gets to take a breather once in a while. Anyway, while the injunction would have been ridiculous, it sounds like RIM is still on the hook for patent infringement. This is another case where the patent is holding back innovation. RIM, who is at least doing some innovating, is being forced to pay a company that does nothing but hold a patent for an idea that's fairly obvious, and which RIM clearly did not "take" from them.