Canadian Government Files Brief in RIM Patent Dispute
From the interesting-people list, Michael Geist of the Toronto Star sent in news that the
"... Canadian government has intervened in the ongoing U.S. patent dispute involving Canadian-based Research in Motion. The Canadian government argues that the U.S. courts are giving U.S. patent law extra-territorial effect and ought to reconsider their decision."You can read the entire story on NYTimes.com, but in short, it appears that RIM is basically saying that because their relay servers (which you could argue is their core technology) are in Canada, the patents that NTP holds in the US don't apply. Surprisingly, they're getting some traction too. The Canadian government AND Earthlink are now formally supporting that argument. My instincts tell me that this is a big deal for both RIM and patent law in general.
January 26, 2005 in News, Platform by ajohnson
Comments
I hope RIM wins it will mean a lot more companies will move technology research to Canada to get around the ridiculous US patent laws if RIM wins.
Posted by: Andy on January 28, 2005 3:48 PM
"Ridiculous" US patent laws? Maybe you not consider any patent laws 'ridiculous' if it was a US company stealing Canadian patents. BTW, patents issued by national governments have been enforced through the WTO, so that just because something is patented in country X, doesn't mean that some company in country Y can steal the idea and start producing whatever the patent holder invented.
Posted by: Scott on December 8, 2005 3:52 PM