Case Study: Patent Troll

The term Patent Troll is used for a company which has no products and little infrastructure that amass patents with the intention of prosecuting offending companies. In this case study, I will be discussing a company NTP Inc., which is now called as Patent Troll by many because of its actions in the past.

NTP, Inc. is a Virginia-based patent holding company founded in 1992 by the late inventor Thomas J. Campana Jr. and Donald E. Stout. The company's primary asset is a portfolio of 50 US patent and additional pending US and international patent applications. These patents and patent applications disclose inventions in the fields of wireless email and RF Antenna design. The named inventors include Andrew Andros and Thomas Campana.

At that time, NTP’s had 7 system patents and 6 method apparatus patents. But their weak spot was that their Patents were in the US not extend internationally.

In the Late 90’s, Research in Motion (RIM) introduced Blackberry in the market and stole the show. At the moment RIM had sales that was considered to infringe upon NTP’s patents. NTP thought of making quick dollar and contacted RIM and offered to license their patent, but RIM didn’t respond.

There were two types of claims made by NTP:

1)    Method patent
Method claims referred to the way RIM ran its email system. The Blackberry handsets were sold by RIM in the U.S., so the system apparatus patent law applied to RIM. The court held that RIM used NTP’s patented system in the U.S

2)    System and Apparatus patents

Apparatus claims referred to the software and hardware of the Blackberry. The method claims were rejected by the U.S. court since the relay utilization occurred in Canada.