NTP accuses six heavyweights in lawsuit over wireless e-mail patent

If there’s one thing NTP Inc. is really good at, it’s protecting patents with a fervor and winning handsome treasure along the way. Just ask BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM).
After battling it out in court for the better part of five years over patents related to wireless e-mail delivery, RIM finally settled with NTP in 2006 for $612.5 million. As to be expected, RIM’s chairman Jim Balsillie began lobbying for patent reform immediately after the payout.
Since then, the Richmond, Va.-based company has attempted to bolster its patents and gone after Palm and all of the top tier U.S. carriers.
Today the company is at it again, this time going after the heavyweights in mobile devices. Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), HTC Corp. (HTCXF), LG Electronics Inc. (LGEAF), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Motorola Inc. (MOT).
In a suit filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, NTP accuses all six companies of infringing on eight patents “related to the delivery of electronic mail over wireless communications systems.”
NTP mentioned its “long litigation and eventual settlement” with RIM in a press release about this most recent court filing. In late 2009, after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reexamined NTP’s patents, it ruled that 67 of the company’s patent claims in four patents are valid, according to the company. Other claims were rejected by the USPTO, but are on appeal.
The six companies caught in NTP’s legal cross hairs are surely taking notice today, considering the massive sum RIM paid for similar claims. And, Tom Campana, the company founder who claims to have invented wireless e-mail, and his lawyers could be seeing a lot more cash if the latest claims hold up in court.
In other patent litigation news, FlashPoint Technology Inc. has also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission accusing four major device majors of infringement, according to Reuters. The trade panel has agreed to investigate whether Nokia Corp. (NOK), RIM, HTC and LG have infringed on four of the company’s patents related to “electronic imaging devices.”