Widow of NTP Founder Pens Angry Letter To U.S. Senators
TORONTO -(Dow Jones)- The widow of NTP Inc. founder Thomas Campana has written a letter to two Illinois senators complaining about the "gross injustice" that she is suffering at the hands of the U.S. government.
Joletta Campana's letter is the latest twist in the long-running patent dispute between Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry email device, and NTP, a Virginia-based patent concern formed to protect the patents of Chicago-area inventor Thomas Campana.
The letter was written in response to the U.S. Department of Justice's request "to stay any consideration of the reimposition of an injunction" on sales and services of BlackBerry in the U.S. for at least 90 days. It was addressed to both Senators in her home state of Illinois, Barak Obama and Richard Durbin, both of the Democratic Party.
"Tom was an American success story - a veteran who built his company and contributed to the development of wireless technology," the letter said. "He is entitled to the same patent protection as big companies. I know that I do not have as much money or political influence as a large company like RIM, but I ask for your assistance in this matter. It is bad enough that my government will not act to protect me, but it is even worse that the Department of Justice is acting against me."
The DOJ's request to withhold a decision on an injunction was part of a statement of interest that it filed last week to Virginia District Court. Among other things, the filing said the U.S. government wants to ensure that its use of BlackBerry devices and software, which falls outside the scope of any injunction, isn't impeded. An estimated 200,000-300,000 U.S. government officials use BlackBerry devices.
The Virginia court first issued an injunction on sales and services of BlackBerry in 2003. However, it immediately stayed the injunction pending RIM's appeal of a jury verdict that found RIM had infringed on five NTP patents. The appeal recently ended, with NTP's case weakened but intact.
An injunction could be reissued by Judge James Spencer, the District Court judge presiding over the case, if he determines that a preliminary settlement signed by the parties in March wasn't binding.
In her letter, Joletta Campana said that RIM "somehow convinced the Department of Justice to submit" its statement of interest "basically repeating misinformation supplied by RIM and asking Judge Spencer to suspend the case indefinitely."
Mrs. Campana went on to say that the DOJ "took a position that, to my ears, sounds stupid. Basically, they said that because RIM has done such a great job of stealing Tom's invention, RIM should be immune from the patent laws."
A DOJ spokesman declined to comment. Officials from RIM weren't immediately available for comment.
Company Web Site: http://www.rim.net
-Stuart Weinberg, Dow Jones Newswires; 416-306-2026;
stuart.weinberg@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 17th November 2005
