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NTP hits Palm with patent suit

Quote:

Patent firm NTP says it filed a patent infringement suit against Palm, maker of Treo smartphones.

The company claims Palm's mobile devices and services infringe seven NTP patents and seeks uspecified monetary damages arising from that infringement.

The infringement claims are around the mechanisms used within email services where they use wireless communications to supply services to mobile processors.

NTP is no stranger to patent suits, most notoriously because of its long drawn out tussle with Research In Motion. That suit, first filed in 1999, was resolved earlier this year, with RIM agreeing to a $612.5 million bill for a licence to use NTP's patents, despite doubt as to their validity.

It is this shadow which Palm is relying on in its terse response to the suit. It says that the USPTO has re-examined the patents in question and found them invalid and that some of the patents asserted by NTP are unrelated to Palm's activities.

'Palm has been in occasional contact with NTP concerning a license to these patents. When Palm last communicated with NTP many months ago, however, each of the patents already was the subject of re-examination proceedings by the PTO. Palm is disappointed that, after many months of silence and repeated rejections of NTP's claims by the PTO, NTP has chosen to sue on patents of doubtful validity,' it said in a statement.

'Palm respects legitimate intellectual property rights, but will defend itself vigorously against the attempted misuse of the patent and judicial systems to extract monetary value for rights to patents that may ultimately have no value at all.'

Palm stock dive 8.1 per cent on the news, or $1.24, to $14.17 in afternoon trade on Nasdaq yesterday.

PC Pro: News: NTP hits Palm with patent suit

Is no one safe from NTP!

No. NTP is a patent mill run by a worthless collection of attorneys with questionable morals and ethics. They sue everyone without concern for winning or even the validity of their claims. Their sole purpose is to make money, which they do, because it ends up being cheaper for their victims to pay them off rather than fight them in court. I consider this extortion, and is an unfortunate example of the state our morals and ethics are in.

It is also a shining example of the need for Tort Reform. Loser of the lawsuit pays the others fees..period. I too have been the victim of extortion tactics like this. So many innocent companies and individuals have to pay attorneys and settlements, because the simple matter is, it is cheaper to pay than play.

I think ifonline already answered this, but do these guys have an actual product, or is filing lawsuits the core competancy?

Everything I have read about NTP is that they actually have not developed any products, they only hold patents (presumably for products developed by others). They simply sue for "infringements" of other people's work.

Companies (if you can actually call them companies) like NTP make me sick. My god, the guy who set up the company is dead now......looks like his lawyer is cleaning up with the rights to this business. Maybe he's already spent the $600 million he got from RIM this year!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ifonline

I'll have to agree with you on that; I work for a patent law firm and the point is to basically settle with the little people and go after the big players, if you have the patent you're basically going after anyone that uses it or something similar and that's how you make your money.