Trolls eat Blackberry

(via IPKat) A very unfortunate turn of events for innovation. The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear the case of Research in Motion Ltd (RIM), the inventors and makers of the famous (and perhaps infamous) Blackberry, versus patent trolls NTP Inc. RIM has been trying to attack an injunction against them resulting from the patent litigation initiated by NTP, where they claim that the Blackberry infringes five of their patents (including patent 5,436,960). What I find disturbing about this case is that NTP clearly is just a troll filing broad patents (read the above link and laugh and/or cry). They never built a thing, they sit on their patent and wait for the true innovators to start making a product, then attack them with an expensive infringement suit.

Although workaholics everywhere are concerned that their gadget will disappear, bookies are not counting that the Blackberry will go out of season (to my count, at least three articles already use that title), the odds are 2-1 against that happening.