Nokia licenses disputed BlackBerry patents

By Steve Malone

Posted on 16 Jun 2004 at 09:36

The long running dispute between RIM, the manufacturers of the BlackBerry handset and NTP could be entering its final phase. It has been announced that Nokia has licensed the disputed patents from NTP that will enable the company to sell its BlackBerry based 6820 handset in the US.

The dispute is also likely to be ended sooner rather than later following reports that Thomas Campana has died from cancer. Campana, 57, was a retired electrical engineer, registered the patents for the wireless transmission of email in the early 1990s. NTP was originally founded to protect and licence the so-called 'Campana patents' at the centre of the legal battle.

Nokia signed a deal with RIM to sell BlackBerry derived devices in 2002 but has been wary of launching any products into the US for fear of falling foul of the litigation from NTP. The licensing deal now opens the way for Nokia to enter the market

RIM Chairman and Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said, 'We're thrilled beyond thrilled. There's a very big backlog of orders for the BlackBerry-enabled 6820, We're thrilled to have a partnership with Nokia, we've worked on it for two years. We've wanted this product in market as soon as possible.'

Nevertheless, the legal battle between NTP's remaining shareholders and RIM continues. RIM is currently appealing a decision by the court which fined the company $53.7 million for patent infringement but also banned RIM from selling BlackBerry enabled devices into the US. The Campana patents are also being re-examined by the US Patent Office at the request of RIM.

Although the outcomes of the appeal and the patent re-examination are still not certain, Nokia has obviously decided that it couldn't wait any longer for the dispute to be resolved and wanted to start selling its 6820s into the US. Whilst RIM might profess itself 'thrilled', the Nokia licence won't make its job any easier in either hearing. The likelihood at this stage is that RIM will follow Nokia and sign a licensing deal with NTP.