Late in December a new party surfaced in the patent suit between NTP and RIM: Computer Leasco (CLI).
[soap opera soundtrack] According to one account Thomas Campana founded an engineering company in the early 1970s and contracted in the mid-1980s to do work for a paging company called Telefind. Telefind went bankrupt in 1991, and Campana won a judgement against the company for breach of contract. CLI also won a judgement against Telefind and was awarded some equipment and pending patents. Campana’s lawyers managed to get the patents removed from the judgement for CLI, and Campana and Donald Stout subsequently formed NTP. Even though a court upheld NTP’s ownership of the patents in 1994, CLI now has filed claiming Campana was wrongly awarded the patents.
Some have asked why CLI waited until now to file. Seems simple to me. CLI has nothing to lose at this point. NTP has already won most of its case against RIM, and is likely to gain at least a reasonably rich royalty deal either by award or by settlement, unless the USPTO deems the original patents invalid.
More about this on Cnet and RCR News.
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