The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the last of eight patents issued to Virginia holding company NTP.These patents, for various technologies used in BlackBerry devices, are thought to form the crux of NTP's patent infringement suit against BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion.
Yet from the commends of attorney Dennis Crouch of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff in Chicago, this ruling does not necessarily settle things.
"There's no evidence that this rejection is more likely to stick," Crouch tells BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl.
Still, Crouch adds that NTP will face a dicey path if it wishes to appeal the Patent Office's rejection while not making any changes to its original patent claims. "Any changes they (the Patent Office) make would give RIM grounds for a new trial, and NTP doesn't want a new trial," Crouch says. "If the claims are changed, there would have to be a trial."
