Wander around Liverpool Street Station during a busy working day, and you may notice executive looking types immersed in a little gadget they are holding in the palm of their hands. We are of course talking Blackberry, the mobile phone, which has proven so popular, thanks to its ability to send and receive email.
But it is just possible it will be sending and receiving no more, at least in the US, thanks to a legal dispute with NTP.
Although, in fairness, it would seem that there are far too many bucks involved, for that eventuality being allowed to transpire.
The legal tussle started in 2002, when NTP sued Blackberry, won the case and had an injunction granted against Blackberry, but which was stayed pending appeal.
Last year, an out of court settlement was reached, in which Research in Motion, the company behind Blackberry agreed to pay $450mn. But three months later, NTP, or so it appears, changed its mind about the deal, and pressed ahead with their legal claim.
So it was back to appeal, with RIM arguing that since the server used for the Blackberry service is in Canada, the NTP patent does not apply. But yesterday, the Supreme Court made its judgement. It said it didn’t matter where the patent infringement took place and turned down RIM’s request to have a review.
Some are now saying that the days for the Blackberry device in the US are now numbered. But RIM tried playing down the ruling yesterday, and its vice president of corporate marketing, Mark Guibert said: “RIM has consistently acknowledged that Supreme Court review is granted in only a small percentage of cases and we were not banking on a Supreme Court review.”
Now the company is focusing attention on technology, which it could make available for using the Blackberry service without infringing the NTP patent.
Lawyers representing RIM have argued that an injunction against Blackberry would go against the public interest, and could even have national security implications.
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