Threat to BlackBerry sales

THE maker of the BlackBerry email phone, Research In Motion, is back on the warpath with Canadian patent firm NTP after failing to finalise a $450m (£246m) settlement in a damaging dispute over technology licensing.

BlackBerry sales could be halted if a court injunction is successful. Investors, who had assumed the dispute was settled, were caught unawares by the news.

Toronto-based RIM has asked the courts to enforce the terms of a deal announced in March because NTP 'refuses to honour all of its obligations.'

The dispute goes back to 2002 when NTP successfully sued RIM for patent infringement. Although an appeal court upheld that finding, it also found part of the earlier ruling was flawed and sent the case back to a lower court.

In an effort to stop the fight and get back to work, the Canadian company agreed in March to pay the $450 million, saying it would be finalised 'within weeks'.

NTP won a court injunction in 2003 halting US BlackBerry sales, but that was stayed during the appeal process. Now it could be reactivated. The case has become further tangled with the Patent and Trademark Office now questioning the validity of two of the five NTP patents involved, RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie told analysts.

He says all he wants is the settlement-deal enforced by the courts: 'RIM is not looking to modify any aspect of the binding term sheet, but rather to have the court enforce the term sheet that both parties committed to and signed,' he said. 'I'm a pragmatic businessman... I'm not looking to play any games, do any quibbling or deviate from anything we agreed to do here.'