NTP Pays Good To Show RIM How To Be A Good Patent Licensee

from the wait-a-second... dept

In yet another wireless patent story of the day, Good Technology has licensed the patents from NTP that almost forced RIM to stop selling Blackberries in the US and (more recently) has RIM pleading Canadian, and saying US patents have no meaning up north. So, what's so odd about Good giving in (as did Nokia)? Well, as part of the agreement, NTP is investing in Good. In other words, NTP has paid Good to license their own patents. That seems a bit questionable. Obviously, the idea is that if everyone else is licensing the patents from NTP (a company that does nothing other than try to convince people to license these patents that many question the validity of), then RIM will feel compelled to give in and license the patents as well. However, when NTP is paying other companies to license these patents, it certainly makes you wonder about the validity of the whole situation.