NTP seeks to enforce mobile email patent with Treo maker.
NTP seeks to enforce mobile email patent with Treo maker.
Patent holding company NTP has filed a lawsuit against Palm, alleging that the maker of the Treo smart phone infringes on the company's patents.
NTP is a holding company that attempts to collect license fees for a set of patents for a wireless e-mail system.
The company is best known for its five-year legal battle with Blackberry maker Research In Motion. Facing an injunction that would have caused the service to shut down in North America, RIM in March settled the case for US$612.5m. NTP also has license agreements with Nokia, Good and Visto.
The US Patent and Trademark Office is in the process of re-examining two of the NTP-patents and earlier this year issued final rejection notices.
NTP is demanding damages as well as an injunction that bars Palm selling and servicing the products that infringe on its patents.
The case against Palm however could prove to be a much more difficult fight than the one against RIM following a ruling by the US Supreme Court last May.
The highest court imposed restrictions on injunctions in patent cases. The new rules effectively prevents patent holding companies from using injunctions to bully manufacturers into purchasing a license on their technology.