Courts scale back ruling against RIM

Aug 02 2005 - 02:53 PM ET | Research In Motion
Research In Motion caught a break today when a U.S. appeals court scaled back a December ruling that was mostly in favor of its suitor NTP. Investors have pushed shares of RIM up [RIMM] because today's news reduces the chances of a court injunction banning the sale of BlackBerry's. RIM is being sued by patent holding firm NTP for patent infringement. While the case originally tipped in the favor of NTP, causing a $450 million settlement agreement, the tides have recently swung in RIM's favor. bq. In the latest decision, the court reversed some additional infringement findings made by a lower court against RIM and again sent it back to a lower court for further review.

The appeals court overturned the lower court's finding that RIM had infringed NTP Inc.'s "method" patents, but reaffirmed the infringement of patents of the e-mail "system."