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NTP Pushes RIM for Larger Settlement

1:28 am on December 12, 2005 | Category: Business, Law, Mobile Devices

NTP co-founder, Donald Stout has recently claimed that his company would drop its ongoing patent lawsuit against Research in Motion, on the condition that RIM agreed to a settlement equaling 5.7% of their US BlackBerry sales until 2012.

Although there is no exact word on how much money would be involved, it would likely be something in the vicinity of $100 million per year. This is substantially higher than the $450 million flat settlement previously offered by RIM.

“We’re not going to have continued warfare going on,” said Stout, indicating that he wants to achieve a clear and final settlement in the near future. The question is, of course, whether RIM will agree to these terms.

The company faces a definite dilemma between either caving in to NTPâ€™s demands, or facing an injunction that would halt US BlackBerry sales until the patents expire in 2012. With time running low, it appears that this latest offer from the patent holder could be the last chance of a negotiated settlement.

If NTPâ€™s greedy demands are too much for the prideful RIM to stomach, then both companies will likely find themselves out in the cold. Consequently, competing entities such as Nokia will be given the first shot at filling the vacuum of Americaâ€™s email smartphone market.

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Please send me NTP phone number.

Comment by Rory Donadio — January 24, 2006 #
NTP is a very small company, without any assets aside from its patents. They don’t seem to have a publicly accessible website or phone number that I can find.

If anyone reading this does come across any of their contact information, however, feel free to post it here…

Comment by Jeremy — January 25, 2006 #

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