Court says prior RIM/NTP settlement invalid

Nov 30 2005 - 03:25 PM ET | Research In Motion

Research In Motion (maker of the BlackBerry) was dealt another blow today when a U.S. District Judge ruled that a previous settlement reached between RIM and NTP is now invalid. The $450 million agreement was never fully completed and now looks like it will never be. Some insiders believe the new settlement will be for a higher dollar figure, perhaps over $1 billion.

NTP is suing Research In Motion for patent infringement and has even petitioned the court for an injunction that would stop the sale of RIM's flagship BlackBerry product line. Many of RIM's customers, including the Federal government, have been following that request closely. RIM noted earlier this year that it has some new software it could switch to if need be so that customers would not go without service.

Shares of RIM [RIMM] took a sharp dive after this afternoon's news, down over 6% as of this writing.