According to BusinessWeek, RIM may have paid NTP too soon in the effort to settle its 5-year court battle.
On Apr. 6, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office rejected one of the five patents NTP had accused RIM of infringing and gave a strong indication that the other disputed four might soon be rejected upon reexamination as well. The agency has been taking a second look at more than 2,000 claims made on a total of eight NTP patents, including the five that RIM allegedly infringed, ever since Arlington (Va).-based concern sued RIM in December, 2002. After more than two years, the officials have rejected all 523 claims NTP made on three of those patents.
Aw, snap. That’ll be the mother of all cases of buyers’ regret.