RIM Pleads Canadian In Patent Lawsuit
from the they-just-remembered? dept
The ongoing lawsuit of NTP against RIM keeps getting stranger. If you haven't been following it, RIM is the maker of the ridiculously popular Blackberry email device. NTP is a company that claims to hold patents on the concept of such an email device -- and they want RIM to be forced to stop selling the devices in the US or (obviously, what they'd prefer, since they don't actually sell a competing product or, well, make anything) license the patent from them. NTP has won a few rounds, though, a recent ruling said that RIM didn't need to turn off all of their pagers just yet. There was also a twist a few weeks ago when another company stepped up, claiming that NTP doesn't actually own the patents they claim they own. However, an even more bizarre issue may be that RIM has suddenly remembered one very important fact: the company is based in Canada. Also, the servers through which email passes to get to Blackberry devices are based in (you guessed it) Canada. The patent in question is (whoops) only supposed to apply to the US. Therefore, the argument goes, RIM is immune to the challenges, because they're not doing this stuff in the US -- even if the email eventually ends up in the US. It's an interesting legal claim, but it might not stand up in court. Still, if it does, expect other companies accused of patent infringement to do something similar. If someone accuses you of patent infringement, just move a server offshore and, voila, you're protected.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Works for me
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Works for me
But leave some of your freedoms behind (free speech, freedom of religion).
And please don't hurt anyone's feelings. That is worse than murder up here.
As for lawyer companies who sue for patent violation, I hope they all die. Pond scum!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Works for me
You MUST be trolling, we have a heck of a lot more freedoms than your current religious-right "tough on terror" backed government lets you have.
Land of the free the U.S ain't.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Works for me
But there is some truth in what I say. You put up a religious sign in a Canada, people will cry foul. Merchants don't even want to say Merry Christmas anymore. They just want to say "Happy Holiday!". What holiday, and why the hell should we be happy?
You put up bondage photos of a woman covered in barbed wire (a Canadian photographer did this to herself for display at an embassy) and people applaud it as art.
People froth at the mouth at the slightest possibility of political incorectness, yet they continue to elect obviously corrupt governments.
Canada is starting to suck, eh? Eh!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]