There Go Two More NTP Patents

from the what-took-so-long? dept

Wed, Jun 22nd 2005 4:27pm — Mike Masnick

Once the momentum gets moving, apparently, it's tough to get it to stop. On Monday, we noted that the Patent Office had tossed out a second NTP patent out of the five it was reviewing. In April, the Patent Office realized they never should have granted the first one. Today, both NTP and RIM have said that the Patent Office has admitted (well, look at that), that it made two more mistakes on two more patents. There's still one more patent left, but it's not looking very good for NTP at this point. However, for RIM, who has been dragging its feet on finalizing a deal to license these patents, things must be looking up. What's scary, though, is that plenty of people have pointed out from the very beginning that these patents didn't seem at all valid -- and yet countless millions of dollars have been completely wasted in efforts to license these patents and various lawsuits concerning them. Can someone sue the Patent Office for screwing up so badly? Maybe that would get them to be a bit more careful in approving patents. In the meantime, though, this particular situation is far from over. There's still the last patent (still being reviewed) and then NTP still has a chance to go back and plead its case that the patents really are valid. So, at the pace the Patent Office seems to move, we should still have plenty of RIM-NTP stories for the next year or so.

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3 Comments

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Mathew, 22 Jun 2005 @ 8:37pm

RIM vs. NTP
You might want to do a little more research before jumping into the fray on the NTP vs. RIM patent issue. Five of NTP's eight patents have been re-examined, but only two of those five had anything to do with RIM, so it's not really correct to suggest that those re-examinations somehow affected the case with RIM. And of the two that did have something to do with RIM, only one or two claims out of hundreds in each patent had anything to do with the RIM case.
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Sue Happy, 23 Jun 2005 @ 12:10pm

Sue the Patent Office?
You've got to be kidding about suing the Patent Office. Sure, the PO needs big improvement and has made many poor decisions. However, a slew of lawsuits will bring an already slow, agonizing, and irrational process to a complete standstill.
The PO needs reform, not lawsuits.
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- Mike (profile), 23 Jun 2005 @ 5:58pm
  
  Re: Sue the Patent Office?
  Yes, it was a joke... However, considering that their admitted mistake cost companies and individuals millions of dollars, shouldn't they get some sort of punishment?
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