RIM announces US only version of Blackberry

THE ON-GOING saga that pits patent specialists, NTP, against Blackberry maker, RIM, has taken yet another twist. This time RIM has announced that it is ready with its "software work-around" for Blackberry users in the US.

The word-around has been labelled Blackberry Multi-Mode edition - simply because it can act in different modes in different locations. The idea is that RIM has subtly altered the way mail is delivered.

Rather worryingly, this alteration requires the mobile network operators in the USA - such as Cingular and Verizon - to do more of the work than is currently required. The difference should be absolutely invisible to the end user.

The reason RIM is so confident that its Multi-Mode solution will suceed is that the whole dispute has been refined down to just nine claims from only three of NTP's patents. Still, there's a good chance that RIM could lose its legal arguments when it returns to a Virginia court on February 24th.

So RIM might be forced to implement its Multi-Mode solution in double-quick time. The INQ wonders whether this lawsuit might have succeeded if RIM had originated in the USA rather than Canada.

If you've ever wondered who NTP are, it's a company founded by a patent lawyer Donald E Stout and Thomas J Campana Junior. The latter was an engineer who is now deceased, but who won the patent for a fairly primitive wireless email system he devised during the 1980's while working at a company called Telefind.

What's worrying is that NTP has bought into email specialist, Visto. The outcome is that Visto has now apparently 're-validated' its patents. So expect it to go after old adversaries like Seven all over again.

It wouldn't be so bad if NTP actually operated a rival email service which it is trying to defend. RIM's learnt its lesson though. Multi-Mode edition is being patented in the US. µ