“I must say I am surprised, absolutely surprised, that you have left this incredibly important and significant decision to the Court. I've always thought that this, in the end, was really a business decision. And yet you have left the decision in the legal arena, and that's what you're going to get, a legal decision,” said Judge James Spencer.
The two firms have been in dispute since 2001, when NTP claimed that certain RIM products were infringing on NTP patents covering a method of using radio frequency wireless communications in email systems.
RIM was found guilty of patent infringement in November 2002, when a jury awarded NTP damages of $53.7 million and imposed an injunction – which was then stayed pending an appeal.
The injunction was lifted by a federal appeals court in August 2005, after the court found that the BlackBerry did infringe some of NTP’s patents, but that one of the lower court’s key definitions, relating to the term “originating processor", was too wide.
The Court of Appeals therefore returned the case to the District Court for further arguments over the claims that may have been affected by the flawed definition. The District Court has also to decide whether or not to re-impose the injunction.
Arguments took place on Friday, and Judge Spencer is still considering his verdict. He warned the parties:
“I can discern from reading the pleadings and preparing for this hearing that a legal decision, a Court imposed solution, will be imperfect. The legal squabbling will continue, RIM's business will continue, in plain words the case should have been settled. But, it hasn't. So I have to deal with that reality.”
The pressure is on RIM and NTP to settle.
"We believe, based on the closing remarks of Judge Spencer, that the Court was receptive to the merits of our arguments,” said NTP, after the hearing. “We want all BlackBerry users to know that we have repeatedly attempted to settle this issue with RIM, including trying to meet with them this week.”
But RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie described NTP's settlement offer as "disingenuous and illusory", according to Computerworld.
The firm has developed a workaround that, it says, will prevent BlackBerry customers losing email access in the event that an injunction is imposed.
RIM also announced on Friday that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a final rejection of a patent at the heart of the dispute – the second final rejection in a week.
The USPTO has already issued preliminary rejections in respect of all three patents involved in the dispute, but the process is far from complete. Final rejections are subject to review by the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals, and if necessary, by the federal court system.
Judge Spencer has already refused to delay his ruling pending the completion of the USPTO re-examination process.
