Judge in RIM case renders no decision

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry e-mail service has survived another day in court as a federal judge decided to rule on NTP’s petition to halt all BlackBerry handheld sales and a complete shutdown of the e-mail service to millions of current subscribers.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer declined to issue the injunction against RIM, which would have given the Canadian vendor 30 days before turning its network dark, but he reserved the right to rule on the injunction at a later date, meaning the specter of a possible shutdown still looms over RIM.

Despite granting RIM a temporary reprieve, Spencer was by no means indulgent with the company. He said that his original finding—that RIM was infringing on NTP’s patents—was still in effect, and he expressed exacerbation with the both RIM and NTP that they had not reached a settlement. Furthermore, the judge said he might rule on damages to NTP in the near future. NTP today requested $126 million in damages for past infringement as well as the injunction to prevent future infringement.

Spencer also hinted that he might be open to the idea of granting NTP’s injunction in the future. He expressed skepticism about RIM’s claim that a service shutdown would undermine critical public-safety and government infrastructure, echoing a decision he made on Wednesday when he denied the U.S. Justice Department’s request for a hearing over the effects a BlackBerry blackout would have on federal government operations. In fact, Spencer turned RIM’s own strategy against it, saying RIM itself has argued that a software “workaround” it has developed would avoid disruption of its service.

After the court adjourned, NTP issued a statement saying the holding company was looking forward to the final outcome of the case and that it believed Spencer was receptive to its arguments.

“We want all BlackBerry users to know that we have repeatedly attempted to settle this issue with RIM, including trying to meet with them this week,” the NTP statement said. “Contrary to RIM’s public stance, we always have and continue to offer RIM a license that fully protects everyone—its customers, carriers and partners. RIM has rejected our efforts, stalled the proceedings and attempted to undermine the process every step of the way. We have acted to protect our own interests and will do so in the future as should all patent holders.”

RIM issued no public statement today, but NTP’s claims differ substantially from statements RIM made on Thursday. Speaking at on investors’ call, RIM co-CEO James Balsillie said RIM would concede to give NTP a higher percentage of its revenues from BlackBerry handheld sales and service fees to drop the suit, implying RIM has been in 11th hour negotiations with NTP. But Balsillie said RIM would not agree to any settlement that would hamper its ability to sell BlackBerry devices and partner with other companies in the future.

Last year, RIM and NTP reached a $450 million settlement, only to have it fall apart a few months later. Since then the two have been battling it out in court and the forum of public opinion, ever increasing concerns that a shutdown was imminent. Though Spencer didn’t rule on the injunction today, he strongly urged the two to reach a settlement soon before he is forced to decide the case.