USPTO Rejects Another Key NTP Patent

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office dealt a major blow to NTP on Wednesday by rejecting a key patent at the center of the company's dispute with Research In Motion. The non-final rejection covers five of the seven patent infringement claims against RIM, which could be forced to shut down its BlackBerry service.

A separate patent covering the other two infringement claims has also been preliminarily rejected by the USPTO. The rulings give RIM a legal basis to challenge NTP's push to have a judge enforce an injunction against the company. However, final decisions from the USPTO could be months away.

NTP, which has been accused of attempting to extort RIM for financial gain, promised to appeal the decision. The company has already won a jury ruling in its favor, and is scheduled to appear in court February 24 to argue that the BlackBerry service be shut down.

With all of NTP's patents ostensibly on track to be ruled invalid, it puts U.S. District Judge James Spencer in a difficult position. Although he has indicated his patience for the case was wearing thin, it appears that in order to enforce the injunction, Spencer would have to rule that he believed the USPTO was acting in error.

However, the judge has also signaled in the past that he does not intend to wait for final rulings from the patent office, although RIM would likely appeal a decision against it once the USPTO had completed its review.

"In all of the Patent Office rulings to date relating to the reexamination of all eight of the NTP patents, NTP's arguments on the merits of patentability have been rejected by the Patent Office," the company said in a statement.