Tuesday, November 7, 2006
NTP Sues Palm
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "NEWS" @ 04:30 AM
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061107_059015.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives
"Here we go again. Just when you thought you had heard the last of NTP—infamous for the lawsuit that nearly squashed the BlackBerry and the company behind it, Canada's Research In Motion (RIMM)—the Virginia-based patent holding company has filed suit against another handheld maker, Palm (PALM), the company behind the Treo smartphone—and the BlackBerry's main rival."
The article goes on to say that the Palm Treo, Tungsten and a few other devices infringe on 7 of NTP's patents. I assume these have nothing to do with Windows Mobile versions of the Treo since NTP would go after Microsoft directly for that. The big difference between RIM and Palm is available cash. Palm couldn't hope to survive a $612,500,000 judgement. As of August 31, Palm had $127M in cash and $400M in short term investments, though I don't know how liquid the latter might be. In any event, a protracted defense could be costly and given NTP has already won against RIM, you certainly can't dismiss this suit as a hopeless money grab. :?
"Here we go again. Just when you thought you had heard the last of NTP—infamous for the lawsuit that nearly squashed the BlackBerry and the company behind it, Canada's Research In Motion (RIMM)—the Virginia-based patent holding company has filed suit against another handheld maker, Palm (PALM), the company behind the Treo smartphone—and the BlackBerry's main rival."
The article goes on to say that the Palm Treo, Tungsten and a few other devices infringe on 7 of NTP's patents. I assume these have nothing to do with Windows Mobile versions of the Treo since NTP would go after Microsoft directly for that. The big difference between RIM and Palm is available cash. Palm couldn't hope to survive a $612,500,000 judgement. As of August 31, Palm had $127M in cash and $400M in short term investments, though I don't know how liquid the latter might be. In any event, a protracted defense could be costly and given NTP has already won against RIM, you certainly can't dismiss this suit as a hopeless money grab. :?
