No doubt if you have been following tech news you would have heard that Research In Motion, the makers of Blackberry, settled the patent lawsuit with NTP (a patent holding firm whose entire business is taking infringers to court) for $612 million. Blackberry addicts across United States can celebrate with more thumb crunching, RIM finally rids itself of a 5 year lawsuit and NTP is rolling in cash. Happy ending? I think not.
This entire transaction violates the principle of business. Business should be an exchange of values - the exchange of goods for another. But where is the exchange of value here? NTP not only brings nothing to the table but also stifles innovation and development through costly lawsuits. So why did RIM come to this settlement when NTP's last patent was to be thrown out? I can think of many reasons why RIM would want to settle quickly but I can also think of why they shouldn't have. With NTP's patents likely to be thrown out, the basis for their lawsuit would be on shaky grounds at best. If RIM held out longer, they might have won and a financially drained NTP would quickly disappear from the community, ending their business of extortion. But now that NTP's coffers are filled to the brim, they can easily drag on future lawsuits for years and any company who is unfortunate enough to fall within their scope would likely succumb to their demands. Was the outcome of the lawsuit so uncertain that RIM needed to settle like this??
Indeed, RIM got what they wanted in the end but at the cost of releasing a parasite into the business community.
business blackberry NTP RIM lawsuit law United States