Do you all remember RIM’s worst nightmare, NTP? The company that almost shut down RIM’s BlackBerry network? NTP has some patents related to wireless email, even though they do not manufacture or provide any sort of wireless email service. They were able to twist RIM’s arm and get them to settle out of court at the 11th hour. The word of impending shutdown of the BlackBerry network was not good news to many groups, including the US Congress, the Pentagon, and deaf & hard of hearing users who depended on their BlackBerries to provide nearly instant text communication.

NTP then brought suit against Palm, and that case is still tied up in court. RIM and Palm both have asked the US Patent office to review and invalidate the NTP patents in question. That, too, is still tied up in red tape.

NTP seems to be back with a vengeance, being emboldened by their success with RIM. They have apparently filed suit against AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon for violating their wireless email patents. T-Mobile has been singled out for their Sidekick pagers/services, and is cause for concern because the Sidekick device/service is hugely popular among the deaf & hard of hearing community.

All may be ending well due to a recent Supreme Court ruling that, in essence, says that patent holders will not be easily granted the injunctions on the allegedly patent-infringing product/material/service if the patent holder does not themselves provide a similar product/material/service. Maybe this will be the end to this patent trolling madness??

Stay tuned!!