Many of you know of the lawsuits going on between Apple and HTC. Well, now patent holding firm NTP has issued a statement suing major cell companies for infringing on their intellectual rights regarding mobile e-mail:
“NTP Incorporated, the company founded by Tom Campana, the inventor of wireless email, yesterday filed lawsuits against Apple, Inc., Google Inc., HTC Corp., LG Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Motorola, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for infringing NTP’s eight patents related to the delivery of electronic mail over wireless communications systems. Each of the defendants is a manufacturer or developer of either wireless handheld devices or software applications used in the delivery of email across wireless communications systems.”
I find the “inventor of wireless email” pretty a rather interesting concept. We will see what happens from there. NTP formerly sued RIM (Research in Motion), the company who makes Blackberry smartphones, over the same intellectual rights and RIM was forced to settle and pay NTP $612.5 million.
NTP stands to make some serious coin if the odds swing in their favor, and based on the RIM settlement and how hard-core they are about enforcing their patents, it looks to be interesting. Quote:
“The filing of suit today is necessary to ensure that those companies who are infringing NTP’s patents will be required to pay a licensing fee,” Mr. Stout continued. “In view of the USPTO Board’s ruling, the debate over whether Mr. Campana was an originator in the field of wireless email is over. No patents in U.S. history have received as much scrutiny as NTP’s patents. We are delighted that the USPTO Board has recognized the groundbreaking innovation of Mr. Campana by confirming 67 of NTP’s patent” claims.”
What do you think? Should everyone just chill out with the suit wars? Or should these companies continue to protect what they believe the be their intellectual property?
via MacRumors