WATERLOO – Blackberry maker Research In Motion said today it has developed and tested software workaround designs for all handsets operating on converged voice/data networks in the United States.
The Canadian company is engaged in a protracted court battle over patents with South Carolina company NTP and if a judgment expected later this week goes against RIM, Blackberry service throughout the United States may have to be shut down.
"Although there is no injunction order in place, and RIM believes it has strong legal and factual arguments opposing an injunction, RIM has developed these software workaround designs as a contingency to allow Blackberry service to continue should the court implement an injunction in the current litigation involving the NTP patents," says the press release.
"RIM remains pragmatic and reasonable in its willingness to enter into a settlement that would generously compensate NTP while protecting RIM’s business and partners," said Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO at Research In Motion, in the release. "NTP’s public offer of a so-called ‘reasonable’ license, however, is simply untenable. It comprises illusory protection for RIM and its partners and requires a lump-sum payment for the theoretical life of the patents even though the U.S. Patent Office is expected to nullify them.
"RIM’s workaround provides a contingency for our customers and partners and a counterbalance to NTP’s threats. This will hopefully lead to more reasonable negotiations since NTP risks losing all future royalties if the workaround is implemented," added Balsillie.
Workarounds are a legitimate strategy that have been respected by the courts as a means to avoid infringement, says the company. In the years leading up to its public launch in 1999, Blackberry was invented wholly independently of NTP’s patents and comprises a wide spectrum of designs and inventions that are outside the scope of NTP’s patents.
There are only nine claims relating to three NTP patents remaining in dispute in this litigation and those claims are only directed to specific implementations of certain aspects of the Blackberry products and services. As a result, RIM has been able to modify its underlying Blackberry message delivery system to "work around" the NTP patent claims. Although the development of this modification required substantial R&D effort from RIM and would require software updates in the event of an injunction, RIM has ensured that the industry leading functionality, performance and user experience remains intact, says the release.
For more, go to www.blackberry.com/workaround.
