Monday, May 01, 2006

Quoted - The BlackBerry vine keeps growing

Just when I thought the whole BlackBerry thing had gone away, along comes another lawsuit and - shazam - I'm being interviewed again.

When Research In Motion paid $612.5 million to NTP last month to settle their longstanding patent dispute, I said then that this would open the door to more frivolous lawsuits. I hate to say I told 'em so, but...

ITbusiness.ca is running this piece, RIM faces fresh patent fight. Byline is Neil Sutton. Here's what I said:
In March, RIM settled its patent dispute with NTP for US$612.5 million following a lengthy court battle. The two parties had attempted a settlement a year earlier for US$450 million, but the deal fell through.

The fact that RIM did finally agree to a settlement “opened the door for other companies to come out of the woodwork,” said Carmi Levy, an analyst with London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research.

“It was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped,” he said. “The NTP case encouraged other companies that felt they owned disputed technology to proceed with cases that stood a better chance of winning.”
Your turn: Will lawsuits like this damage our ability to innovate?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It will have some form of negative impact... just look at how litigious our society has become, and how much that sucks us under. Maybe it will damage our desire to innovate.

bhd said...

I believe it has already happened.

srp said...

Lawsuits damage innovation.
Lawsuits damage invention.
Lawsuits damage the economy.
Lawsuits damage research for new medications and vaccines.
Lawsuits damage race relations.
Lawsuits damage our ability to provide health care.
Lawsuits pad the pockets of greedy lawyers.
As long as we allow lawyers to make the laws of the country, who do you think they are going to protect?
Right, Lawyers.