Financial news from the blue chips
I know that a registration is required to read articles from the Financial Times, which is why I tend to avoid posting them, but a few articles came out over the last few days that seem pretty interesting. In particular, one piece of news published today seems worth mentioning:
First, NTP, a software company that famously sued Research in Motion (RIM - the manufacturer of Blackberry smart phones) for patent infringement, has filed suit against - get this - Apple, Google, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, and Microsoft for the same reason. They claim the companies are infringing on their patents, and are suing them for licensing fees.
The new suits don’t seek a specific amount of damages. But [a settlement negotiator] said that the trial judge in the RIM case had decreed before the settlement that NTP was entitled to royalties of 5.7 per cent of the revenue from the hardware at issue.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out - although the RIM lawsuit took years to complete. No doubt this could have profound effects on the future of NTP, although I would guess less so for the companies it's suing...
Update: CNN has also reported on this, albeit with a little more bias.
