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US Court held that BlackBerry Infringes US Patents 
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - 09:35 PM

In December 2004, the US Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit ruled that Research In Motion, the creators of Blackberry, infringed on hNTP Inc.’s patents.

The Court however reversed an injunction from a Richmond, Va., trial court’s decision and passed the case back to the district court.
Blackberry devices are popular in the US and many parts of Asia, including Singapore.

The dispute began in 2002 when NTP Inc. of Arlington, Va., claimed that RIM infringed on 16 of its patents.

In August 2003, a U.S. court in Virginia agreed that 11 of those 16 patents were violated and awarded NTP $54 million in damages, as well as an 8.6 percent royalty on all the revenue from U.S. BlackBerry sales. The court also ordered an injunction to prevent Research In Motion from making or selling its devices in the United States.

The injunction was stayed, however, while Research In Motion appealed. That appeal was heard in December 2004.