NTP Files Patent Lawsuit Against Palm

Posted By: Ryan on Monday, November 06, 2006 11:22:45 AM

NTP today announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palm, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. NTP, Inc. is the company that recently forced RIM into a $612 million dollar settlement over similar patent claims earlier this year.

In its complaint, NTP asserts that Palm's products, services, systems and processes infringe NTP's patents. The complaint seeks injunctive relief to prevent Palm from continuing to infringe on NTP's patents directly and indirectly. In addition, the complaint seeks the recovery of monetary damages resulting from Palm's past direct and indirect infringement of these patents.

The complaint concerns Palm's manufacture, use, sale, offer for sale, and/or importation into the U.S. of infringing products, methods, processes, services and systems that are primarily used or primarily adapted for use in electronic mail systems with radio frequency (RF) communications to mobile processors and related services, and methods.

Donald E. Stout, NTP's co-founder, said, "We have attempted -- on numerous occasions -- to resolve this issue with Palm without resorting to litigation that is both time consuming and costly. Despite our efforts, Palm has chosen to continue to unlawfully infringe on our patents. Though we would still prefer to resolve this issue with Palm in a negotiated license agreement that is fair and reasonable to both parties, we are filing action today as a last resort to protect our valuable intellectual property."

NTP, Inc. is an intellectual property firm based in Richmond, VA. The privately-held firm holds numerous patents and was co-founded in 1992 by the late inventor Thomas Campana, Jr. and attorney Donald Stout. Among NTP's library of patents are those pertaining to technologies involving wireless email that Mr. Campana developed as lead inventor in 1990. NTP currently has license agreements with Good Technology, Inc., Nokia, Research In Motion, and Visto Corporation.

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11 total comments

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Oy Vey.

medevilenemy @ 11/6/2006 2:45:52 PM #

what's NTP going to do next? Sue itself?

RE: Oy Vey.

Storkdude @ 11/6/2006 2:59:52 PM #

So the only founder left alive is an attourney. Am I the only one not surprised?

Don't blame lawyers for existing

JarJar @ 11/6/2006 3:04:01 PM #

The US patent office is underfunded and understaffed to complete the tasks on its plate. There are a lot of patents that should never have been granted in the first place or are so ill defined that they generate problems. This is a situation that invites lawyers.

NTP should be sued.

hoodoo @ 11/6/2006 3:24:57 PM #

What are they suing Palm for?

Licencing Good's and RIM's software? Or for using a cell-radio and a mobile processor to merely download/access an email? Inventing the Treo? The whole RIM patent fight was over RIM technology, how does Palm infringe on that without licencing RIM's technology, I suppose this is something completely different. They've already got $600 million from RIM.

I can use my Nokia cell phone to access web mail, are they going to sue Nokia and Google/Yahoo/insert web-mail provider here/ and the wireless provider also? Will they then sue me, the end user? What about the mobile processor manufacturer? the LCD company that provides the screen that enables me to view the email?? The battery company that powers the phone? Where does it end? Maybe I should stop before they get too many ideas.

Sheesh.

RE: NTP should be sued.

hoodoo @ 11/6/2006 3:48:02 PM #

More info on the RIM settlement from March 2006:

The settlement: RIM and NTP have agreed to settle the dispute for US$612.5M. The terms
of the agreement have all been finalized and the litigation against RIM has been dismissed by
a court order. The payment will be one-time in nature and does not involve any future
payments. [B]In addition the settlement covers RIM's carrier partners, BlackBerry connect
partners, developers and channel partners.[/B]

my emphasis added.

You will all note, that the settlement covers Blackberry Connect partners (that would include Palm).

RE: NTP should be sued.

palmato @ 11/6/2006 4:10:18 PM #

The irony is of course that the patent office ended up invalidating all of the NTP patents (except 1 perhaps) involved in the RIM case.

This lawsuit should be related to just retrieving emails on a mobile device. If that's the case, it would be another blatant misuse of the patent system.

--------------------------
Hey Admin: Why do we have to keep two profiles?

RE: NTP should be sued.

SeldomVisitor @ 11/6/2006 4:21:29 PM #

They won't sue Nokia because Nokia ALREADY licenses their whatever.

Maybe PALM will end up licensing their whatever, too.

RE: NTP should be sued.

matt_laughs @ 11/6/2006 7:32:10 PM #

yeah i would really like to see the working device with technology they had accessing electronic mail, on what was known as the 'information superhighway' in 1992.
palm should have this moved to another part of va where the laws are more friendly.

thats what she said!

RE: NTP should be sued.

matt_laughs @ 11/6/2006 7:47:26 PM #

how come they didnt sue palm source now known as access?

motorola hasnt been sued, or microsoft, or LG, or how about sprint, t mobile verizon and cingular for enabling copyright infringement by selling internet access. how about bluetooth because i use bluetooth to access the internet on my t5.

blackberry debated releasing a work around, they kind of acknowledged they copied the patent, after the injunction, why didnt they put a workaround out, instead of coughing up 650 million dollars. is it because of that law that says if you started a bussiness by breaking the law (i.e. selling drugs to fund your comic book store) the entire bussiness can be seized. another reason it was a one time payoff.

this company doesnt have to make a deal with them, as far as i know, and what a court will say, who knows, courts are not that accurate. and palm doesnt wana be seized if they are found guilty. and virginia law is strange. i would bet that said company will not want to disclose some things publicly.

'privately held holding company', is there any way to find out who owns it? incorporation papers on file?

and if they really broke a patent, why did it take so long, how did they get such a broad under defined patent.

they are gonna settle, i just know it, this blows.
effed up thing is, they get this broad patent, to renew it they have to find a new use for it (alot of new uses since 1992) thats why drug companies always seem to find a new study showing a....constipation drug may cure sinuses....so they can renew the patent and add on a sinus cure patent to the same drug and never ever intend on selling it to relieve sinuses.

just my 2 cents.

thats what she said!

RE: NTP should be sued.

matt_laughs @ 11/6/2006 8:05:10 PM #

all the info on the 680 was pulled from the palm site and store. i hope this is not related. maybe it is about to be released (some things pointed to a november 6th release/or announcement) and they are about to put up the full information, carriers, palmstore cost, etc. and i hope that is why.

they say there is no such thing as bad publicity.....this will at the very least make palm a household name.....i never really heard of a blackberry before the lawsuit..........if i did it wasnt anything memorable.

thats what she said!

RE: NTP should be sued.

Ryan @ 11/6/2006 9:12:48 PM #

Matt - The Treo 680 info is still there, you just have to hunt for it. Seems it's only linked to from the main site's banner, which rotates different graphics.

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo680/

Palm Software on sale