BlackBerry suit settled; Blackberries live to see another day.

Source: Chicago Tribune

BlackBerry suit settled. $612.5 million deal keeps network active.

By Mike Hughlett, Tribune staff reporter. Staff reporter Eric Benderoff contributed to this story

Published March 4, 2006

A five-year legal battle that threatened to shut down the BlackBerry e-mail system was settled Friday, bringing relief to about 3 million anxious users and providing Chicagoan Thomas Campana III with a special victory.

Campana's father's inventions are at the heart of a patent infringement lawsuit filed by NTP Inc. against BlackBerry's creator, Research in Motion (RIM). Friday, RIM and NTP ended their high-stakes brinkmanship by settling the case for $612.5 million.

They settled soon before a federal judge in Virginia was set to make a ruling that might have shut down the U.S. BlackBerry system. And that judge, James Spencer, made it clear recently he was disappointed with RIM and NTP, and that neither might be happy if he had to settle their quarrel.

The high-profile dispute over the BlackBerry has put a spotlight on the so-called "patent troll."

That's the derogatory term companies like Canada-based RIM have used to describe firms like NTP, which have no operations, just patents. NTP and others like it say they are just standing up for the property rights of inventors like Campana's father, Thomas Campana Jr.

The elder Campana won't see any of the $612.5 million settlement; he died two years ago of cancer at age 57. But his widow, Joletta Campana of Orland Park will, because her husband was one NTP's primary owners.

For Campana's son, the settlement is a vindication.

Businessmen and politicians may return to their regularly-scheduled programming (and porn-browsing) now since there is nothing to fear!