Blackberry Litigation Settled?

I am beginning to get reports of a settlement between NTP Inc. ("NTP") and Research in Motion Ltd ("RIM"). The first report was an email from IP360 with a tantalizing invitation to subscribe to the service to read the full report. As I have about 5 million more pressing UK and European publications I need to buy first, that was a temptation readily resisted. However, I thought it was worth checking out the US techie websites and, sure enough, there was a report by Tom Krazit (who tends to be reliable) on Cnet news.com that "Blackberry was saved". The article has a link to a press release on CCN Matthews's site which looks pretty authoritative.

The settlement appears to be a payment to NTP by RIM of approximately £348.9 million (US$612.5 million) in full and final settlement of all claims against RIM and a perpetual licence for future use. Apparently that amount includes money that had already been deposited into an escrow account. The grant of a licence removes once and for all the risk of disruption of Blackberry services in the USA. The trial judge had hinted strongly on more than one occasion that the parties should settle. Clearly, they have taken the hint.

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