Supreme Court Denies RIM's Emergency Application

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

28 October 2005

Canadian Blackberry wireless e-mail provider (Research in Motion Ltd) RIM was dealt another blow in its patent battle with US company NTP Inc yesterday when the US Supreme Court refused an emergency application for a halt to proceedings pending the Court's decision on whether to hear its case.

A week ago, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had denied RIM's motion to stay further proceedings in the case until the Supreme Court decides whether it will accept an appeal of its decision in the case, and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings based on the Federal Circuit's decision of August 2, 2005.

RIM said it feared that NTP will imminently file a new motion asking the District Court to reinstate an injunction prohibiting RIM from providing BlackBerry service and from using, selling, manufacturing or importing its handhelds and software in the United States. RIM maintains that an injunction is inappropriate given the facts of the case and substantial doubts raised subsequent to trial as to the validity of the patents in question.

After the Supreme Court decision, RIM said it will continue to seek an appeal of the case in the top court, but this decision won't come for a few months, and it is thought unlikely that the Court will hear the appeal.

It is assumed that RIM will seek to have the District Court enforce a preliminary settlement that RIM and NTP announced in March, but later suspended for reasons that are unclear. RIM had agreed to pay $450 million to NTP. Shares in RIM initially sank, but later recovered since it is generally supposed that the parties will manage to reach an agreement.

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