RIM faces uncertain future

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm behind the popular Blackberry email client, has suffered a major setback after a judge ruled that the patent infringement agreement with NTP Software is invalid.

As a result the company could be forced to halt sales of the Blackberry in the United States, which accounts for over two-thirds of its global revenue. Last night its shares were suspended on NASDAQ, although any immediate action to shut the service down was rejected by the judge.

"It seems extraordinary that it has come to this," said Rachel Lashford of mobile analyst Canalys.

"This could be something its competitors could exploit, but RIM has such a large footprint in the push email market they'd have to work hard at it."

The problems started after NTP Software filed a legal case against RIM in 2002, claiming that seven patents had been infringed, particularly over radio technology. It won an injunction to stop sales last year, but this was stopped on appeal and the two companies hammered out a $450m deal.

But after this deal fell apart NTP Software went back to court. Now the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has ruled that the deal is "not an enforceable agreement", raising the possibility that RIM's operations in the United States could be hit.

"As a contingency, RIM has also been preparing software workaround designs, which it intends to implement if necessary to maintain the operation of BlackBerry services in the United States," said RIM in a statement.

"Further details will be made available if such implementation becomes necessary."