Plan B ready to go if an injunction is imposed
Research In Motion has announced it has has developed and tested software workaround designs for all BlackBerry handsets s in the United States.
Although there is no injunction order in place, and RIM believes it has strong legal and factual arguments opposing an injunction, RIM has developed these software workaround designs as a contingency to allow BlackBerry service to continue should the court implement an injunction in the current litigation involving the NTP patents.
“RIM remains pragmatic and reasonable in its willingness to enter into a settlement that would generously compensate NTP while protecting RIM’s business and partners,” said Jim Balsillie, Chairman and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “NTP’s public offer of a so-called ‘reasonable’ license, however, is simply untenable. It comprises illusory protection for RIM and its partners and requires a lump-sum payment for the theoretical life of the patents even though the US Patent Office is expected to nullify them.
“RIM’s workaround provides a contingency for our customers and partners and a counterbalance to NTP’s threats. This will hopefully lead to more reasonable negotiations since NTP risks losing all future royalties if the workaround is implemented.”
RIM’s Workaround Strategy
RIM says there are only nine claims relating to three NTP patents remaining in dispute and those claims are only directed to specific implementations of certain aspects of the BlackBerry products and services.
As a result, RIM says it has been able to modify its underlying BlackBerry message delivery system to “work around” the NTP patent claims. The company said the development of this modification required “substantial R&D effort” and willrequire software updates in the event of an injunction.
RIM says that its legal guidance is that its workaround does not impinge on any of NTP’s patent claims.
RIM has incorporated the workaround designs into a software update called BlackBerry Multi-Mode Edition. RIM has also filed new patent applications with the Patent Office to cover its workaround designs. BlackBerry Multi-Mode Edition is capable of operating in different modes that can be remotely activated by RIM through its Network Operations Center (NOC).
In the absence of an injunction, the software and the underlying message delivery system can continue to run in “Standard Mode” (identical to the manner in which the current BlackBerry software and system operate) and the workaround will remain dormant. In the event of an injunction, RIM says it will be able to remotely activate “US Mode” via its NOC and the workaround designs would automatically engage for each handset containing the Multi-Mode Edition software update.