The technology patents at the heart of an infringement lawsuit by NTP against Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, are likely to be struck down by the United States patent office, both companies said on Monday, a move that would be a setback for NTP.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office took the unusual step of notifying the companies that it expected to reject the five patents held by NTP in its final rulings.

The office has issued preliminary rejections of all five wireless e-mail patents in the past. The final rulings may come by mid-February, earlier than expected.

“The patent owner’s arguments are deemed nonpersuasive,” said the patent office document, which was received last week but dated Nov. 30. “The next office action is expected to be a final rejection of all current claims.”

Good news for Blackberry users. Of course, we need to keep an eye on what happens in the lawsuit separately, but it’s pretty hard to say “they infringed our patents”, if those patents are ruled invalid by the USPTO…

technorati tags: blackberry, RIM, NTP

Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox. Just hit F8
or click the little pencil icon at the bottom right to bring up the
blog editor and easily post to your WordPress, MovableType or Blogger
blogs.

And a quick edit to test the “Publish as Edit” option.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected a second NTP Inc. patent in what it described as a non-final action. The patent, 5,625,670, is one of five at the center of the long-running patent dispute between NTP and Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. It’s the second time in a matter of weeks that the PTO has issued a “non-final� rejection of an NTP patent.

Another step in the right direction.

technorati tags: blackberry, RIM, NTP

technorati tags: blackberry, RIM, NTP

Been out with the ‘flu all week.  Regular writing to resume this weekend, all being well.