[2005-12-08] RIM speaking to NTP through mediator
 

RIM speaking to NTP through mediator

TORONTO--Research In Motion has been speaking to patent holding firm NTP through a court-appointed mediator, the maker of the BlackBerry wireless device said late on Wednesday.

"As NTP knows, RIM and NTP had been communicating with each other through the court-appointed mediator during the last several days. We are precluded by law from discussing the substance of that exchange. RIM expects to continue communications through that channel," Mark Guibert, RIM's vice-president of corporate marketing said in an e-mail.

NTP co-founder Don Stout told Reuters on Wednesday the patent holding company had not talked with RIM since June about settling a lawsuit that could shut down RIM's service in the United States.

NTP successfully sued RIM for patent infringement in 2002. It won an injunction the following year to halt U.S. sales of the device and service. The injunction was stayed pending the appeal process, which has largely been exhausted.

RIM and NTP announced a $450 million settlement in March but the deal fell apart in June.

RIM was pushed closer to a possible U.S. shutdown after U.S. District Judge James Spencer ruled on Nov. 30 that there was no "valid and enforceable" settlement agreement. He also denied RIM's request to stay proceedings pending the completion of a review of NTP's patents by the U.S. patent office.

I wonder if at these talks . . .
 

Is it not ironic, please read . . .

NTP's lead attorney owns a BlackBerry

Posted Dec 9, 2005, 7:05 AM ET by Russell Shaw
Filed under: RIM, Stories

http://www.bbhub.com/images/2005/12/jameswallace.jpgCanada-based national business newspaper the National Post has the most complete profile of NTP co-founder and power behind the RIM patent dispute litigation Don Stout that I have read to date.

Some factoids from the article, written by the National Post's Kevin Restivo:

A patent lawyer, Tom Stout was introduced to eventual NTP founder Thomas Campana as a result of a conversation with a fellow basketball player at a Washington, D.C.-area gym.

After Campana passed away in June, 2004, Stout has been running NTP with former telecom consultant Bill White, who is based in London.

Stout, 59, and his wife Mary have a son and a daughter.

NTP's chief attorney, Jim Wallace (at right) initially met Stout during a case in the 1970s, but re-upted their professonal relationship in 1993 during a satellite communications case.

Wallace owns a BlackBerry- and it must be presumed, ocasionally uses it.:smile: :smile: :smile:

Soon this will all be behind us, and we will be drinking pina-coladas and laughing about the whole mess and how silly it all really was!

If I were RIM I would tell the mediator to ask NTP to bend over and grab their ankles! lol