NTP Inc. followed the massive $612.5 million settlement of its patent infringement case against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. in 2006 with 13 new infringement lawsuits against technology giants. In each of these cases, the company claims infringement of its patents related to delivering electronic mail over wireless communications systems.
But a sticky patent law question is holding them up. At issue is a collision between federal court rulings on patentability and the patent re-examination process that takes place in the U.S. Patent and Trademark office and its appeals board. In a re-examination, the inventor or another party — often a litigation adversary — asks the patent office to verify whether already issued patents are valid. In rare instances, the commissioner of patents initiates the process. The resulting rulings can then be appealed to the patent offices’ Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, which, in turn, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. But federal courts routinely rule on patent validity in infringement cases, and they sometimes reach different conclusions than the patent office and its appeals board.
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