NTP, the company perhaps best known for winning a $600 million patent settlement from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM), has launched a legal battle against six tech companies over alleged infringement of its wireless e-mail patents.
Apple, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft and Motorola are named in the suit, which alleges the companies have violated eight NTP patents related to the delivery of e-mail over wireless networks. Each of the defendants either makes or develops devices or software used in the delivery of mobile e-mail.
Apple and LG did not reply to requests for comment and Google, Motorola and Microsoft declined to discuss the lawsuits. HTC would not comment on the NTP lawsuit specifically, but a spokeswoman said “these types of legal disputes are actually quite common and part of the cycle of innovation.”
In the wake of the RIM settlement in 2006, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) re-examined NTP’s patents and threw many of them out, a decision that is currently being appealed. Three of the 10 claims that RIM was found to have violated were upheld by the patent office’s board of appeals.
NTP, which was co-founded in 1992 by inventor Thomas Campana, believes the patent office’s scrutiny of its e-mail patents puts it on solid legal ground for its current lawsuits.
“In view of the USPTO Board’s ruling, the debate over whether Mr. Campana was an originator in the field of wireless e-mail is over,” said NTP co-founder Donald Stout in a statement.
NTP hasn’t always been successful in court. In 2006 and 2007, the company sued AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless and Palm over its e-mail patents, but the suits weren’t settled and didn’t come to trial.
Campana, who is now deceased, led the development of wireless e-mail and was awarded more than 50 patents over his career. NTP has licensing agreements with RIM, Good Technology, Nokia and Visto.
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