WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. on Wednesday was pushed closer to a possible shutdown of its U.S. mobile e-mail service after a judge refused to delay a patent infringement case and rejected a disputed settlement with patent holder NTP Inc.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer said he would request briefs and set a hearing date to deal with the remaining issues of injunctive relief and appropriate damages against RIM.

"Valid patents would be rendered meaningless if an infringing party were allowed to circumvent the patents' enforcement by incessantly delaying and prolonging court proceedings, which have already resulted in a finding of infringement," Spencer said in his ruling.

Still pending before Spencer is a request by NTP to move forward with an injunction that would halt U.S. sales of the BlackBerry and shut its service.

Spencer granted an injunction in 2003 after the patent-holding company successfully sued RIM in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia, but the ruling was stayed pending appeal.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM and NTP, of McLean Va., reached the outlines of a $450 million settlement in March, but the deal fell apart over the details.

An appeals court in August scaled back an infringement ruling against RIM, but upheld some of NTP's patent infringement claims.

Shares in RIM were halted pending news. A RIM spokeswoman did not immediately return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

With that being said, does that mean that if there is a shutdown, there will be some type of a refund, rebate, or new phone given? I mean, I like the BB just like everyone else...but if they shut the service, I'll be walking around with a pretty paperweight. And that...(as Carlito would say) is not cool.

lead story on cnn.com right now....

hopefully they are just dragging the cast so they can push a workaround in 4.1 or in a SP.

Dont think it will be shut off , its to important like iridium was a save will be made , and if RIM cant whitelist .gov PIN's they will have to keep everything running.

Wonder if it would have been better just to had paid the 450mill in the first place.

But if they win or make a workaorund they gotten free press for a lot of €/$

I'm surprised that RIM hasn't taken the bull by the horns and put out information about how it will survive all this. One of the precepts of CorporateAmerica is to take the wind out of the sails for any bad news before it has the opportunity to destroy an organization. RIM's absence of some initiative in this regard is a very sad commentary on its outlook, in my opinion.

northgull, they've released information to carriers and partners, but i do agree with you that they should give some sort of statement on the subject and try to spin it into a positive light. however, that same sort of positive info could potentially be used against them as ammo in the event that the service was shut off.

but i agree with riis... no injunction.

Making a public statement such as a workaround is akin to admitting guilt and giving the opponent the keys to the castle. If they have workaroud, they will implement it on existing products after a settlement so they do not have to pay future royalties.

Wirelessly posted (ATTW/

Cingular-Blue 7290 BI: BlackBerry7290/4.0.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

... And Deaf/HoH users will have little use for a $50/mo PDA.

Has anyone figured out in lay terms what the patent owners claims are that limit RIM's ability to provide service? Push e-mail, PIN-to-PIN messaging/BBM, Internet Browser, Phone stuff, PDA functions, etc.

Steve

Wirelessly posted twice

Steve

They have admitted guilt. They had a $492M plus 5% future roalties settlement with that patent company and then it backed out and decided to go for the whole shabang. And they have anounced a work around is in the works.

so does the workaround mean no 'push' mail but 'pull'???

Don't think that they have admitted guilt, but rather decided it would be cheaper to pay the royalties than continue the fight. In cases such as this one, guilt would not be admitted and was probably part of the reason that the deal fell apart. They did not back out, more like NTP got too greedy and the settlement fell apart. Where exactly did you get all your information?

They admitted guilt? They were working on a settlement. No where have I EVER heard the word GUILTY come up. Do you have anything to back up the statement.

People (and companies) settle all the time without anyone using the word guilt.