SKATING AROUND THE RIM


Research in Motion (RIM), manufacturer of the ubiquitous BlackBerry, notched up a success in the Patents Court (England and Wales) today when Mr Justice Pumfrey effectively dismissed patent infringement proceedings brought by Luxembourg-based InPro (an IP holding company, a sort of Euro-troll). Last week the German Bundespatentgericht also held in RIM's favour, ruling that the claim which RIM was alleged to have infringed was invalid.

The IPKat is frustrated that the judgment has not appeared on BAILII or, so far as he can see, anywhere else. Given the high level of public and commercial interest in the legality of BlackBerries, he would have expected the judgment to have been made fully available. He has rumours that the judgment is being given limited circulation, also that it is going back for "redaction" (literally, editing - a sort of censorship of the juicy bits). Merpel adds: "no judgment is almost as bad as having it only in a foreign language ..."

If you have any hot news of this case or, better still, a copy of the judgment, just send it here and the IPKat will make it as available as he can!

Read about it on The Register, Globe and Mail (Canada) and Reuters
SKATING AROUND THE RIM SKATING AROUND THE RIM Reviewed by Jeremy on Thursday, February 02, 2006 Rating: 5

1 comment:

  1. According to the FT:

    The judgment was not made public immediately because of possible confidentiality issues. Instead the judge simply announced in court that RIM and T-Mobile had been “entirely successful” in the case.

    But lawyers said afterwards that the judge had held that all the claims in issue were either obvious or lacking in novelty.

    Issues of costs incurred in the patent case - running to several million pounds - and any possible appeal will be dealt with at a later hearing.

    ReplyDelete

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