We thought that when NTP had settled with RIM in 2006 for $612.5 million that it would be the last time we heard those three initials, but they have turned up once again in a mimic law suit but this time taking on almost everyone, charging Apple, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft and Motorola with the infringement of eight patents concerning email delivery over wireless networks.
We suppose we should have known better, give a patent troll some money and they will only come back for more. An HTC spokesperson said, ‘These types of legal disputes are actually quite common and part of the cycle of innovation.’ This is certainly true, especially for HTC, whose recent surge in the smartphone market has attracted litigation from Apple.
After the RIM settlement, NTP went after the top three US mobile carriers but these actions never came to court, mostly because of increasing doubt being raised over its email patents. In 2006, shortly after the RIM case ended, the US Patent and Trademark Office re-examined the patents at issue, and threw some of them out, a decision that is still being appealed. However, three of the 10 counts against RIM were upheld on appeal. NTP has effectively been waiting for its patents to be fully re-instated before continuing the carnage.
NTP was co-founded in 1992 by wireless email inventor Thomas Campana, though he has since died. He won over 50 patents, the basis of the firm’s claim to have IP in virtually all mobile email systems. NTP has licensing agreements for some of the patents, with RIM, Nokia, and two mobile email specialists, Good Technology and Visto (now merged).
Several lawyers believe NTP’s case is weaker this time around, not just because of continuing doubt over some of the patents, but also because most email majors have now worked around them. And many of the patents expire in 2012.