RIM had asked the Supreme Court to review the dispute because
it argued that US patent law should not apply. The company is
Canadian and the software implicated in the action is hosted on
computers in Canada. RIM reckoned this put it beyond the
jurisdiction of US courts.
But the Supreme Court denied RIM's petition without expressing a
reason.
A RIM spokeswoman said last night: “RIM has consistently
acknowledged that Supreme Court review is granted in only a small
percentage of cases and we were not banking on Supreme Court
review”.
However, NTP said the Supreme Court's decision "facilitates the
expeditious reinstatement of an injunction against RIM's ongoing
wilful infringement" – i.e. RIM faces the prospect of a
court-imposed ban, shutting down a wireless email service
that has almost three million users in the US.
The arguments on whether or not to grant the injunction will be
considered by the District Court for the Eastern District of
Virginia in February.
NTP has pointed out that an injunction would not affect usage of
BlackBerry devices by US Government entities and is also not
applicable to licensed products from NTP licensees such as Good
Technology, Nokia and Visto. If granted, other users would receive
30 days' notice.
The timing of the hearing will be crucial for RIM, which is also
waiting for a ruling from the US Patent and Trademarks Office as to
whether the NTP patents are actually valid. Preliminary rulings
from the Patent Office have found that the patents are invalid, and
a final ruling is expected within weeks.
