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RIM Blackberry /NTP Settlement
I am surprised to appear to be the first SLAWyer to post the news that the Blackberry patent dispute appears to have been settled, as per this CBC news story. This is major news. I assume because the settlement was reached late Friday night that more discussion of the settlement will not occur until the open of business on Monday.
Actually Ted, there was a large spread in both the NYT and the RoB this morning. The reason that there hasn’t been more discussion is that the settlement became inevitable with two events, the Patent Office rejection on a reconsideration of the NTP claims, and the adjournment by Judge Spencer of the enforcement hearing of the injunction.
As I’ve said in half a dozen interviews on the business channels and the press, this has been a huge distraction for RIM, a settlement that was much larger than the merits, and a demonstration that the USPTO and the jurisprudence on the application of injunction tests to patents is grossly disfunctional.
Of which in my mind the best summary came out of the New Yorker in December at http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051226ta_talk_surowiecki