Supreme Court refuses to hear RIM patent appeal

The long-running patent infringement case between the producer of Blackberry handsets and the patent holder NTP was sent back to district court, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear RIM's appeal. In its appeal the company has asked the justices to decide on whether the U.S. patent law is out of date in the age of the Internet and the global marketplace as well as whether it applies to Canadian companies. Judge Spencer from the district court has set February 1 deadline for the parties concerned to file in their papers. There is still a chance Blackberry services to be shut down in the US, if the judge decides to enforce his injunction. The only support for RIM in this case can come from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is revising NTP' patents and has indicated its intentions to reject all patents in question.

Source: Yahoo!News