Delay of Patent Suit Is Rejected

Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry e-mail pager, was dealt another legal setback in a key patent infringement case Wednesday, raising pressure to settle or face a possible shutdown of its U.S. mobile e-mail service.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer rejected the company’s request to delay the case and refused to enforce a disputed $450-million settlement with patent-holder NTP Inc.

“Valid patents would be rendered meaningless if an infringing party were allowed to circumvent the patents’ enforcement by incessantly delaying and prolonging court proceedings, which have already resulted in a finding of infringement,” Spencer said in his ruling from Richmond, Va.

Spencer said he would request briefs and set a hearing date to deal with NTP’s request for damages against Research in Motion and an injunction that would end U.S. sales of the BlackBerry and shut its service.

Its shares, halted for the news, reopened down as much as 7.92% before recovering slightly to a decline of 5.84% at $61.13.

The company said it would keep trying to bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court. It has prepared a software upgrade that can be used to work around the disputed patents.

However, Kona Shio, an analyst with research firm Conscius Capital Partners in Montreal, said the rulings increased pressure on the company to settle the case, even though a deal with NTP could cost the company more than $1 billion at this point.

“I don’t think RIM wants to take it all the way to an injunction, so the likelihood is that they are going to settle before that happens,” Shio said.

NTP’s attorney, James Wallace, also raised the possibility of renewing settlement talks.

“We would hope today’s developments would bring the parties back to the table,” he said.

Spencer issued an injunction against Research in Motion in 2003 after NTP sued the company in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia, but the ruling was stayed pending an appeal. In August, an appeals court scaled back the ruling but upheld some of NTP’s patent infringement claims.