Your blackberry may stop working now that the U.S.

Supreme Court has declined to hear Research In Motion’s request for a stay in

the lower court ruling which involved a patent infringement suit.

 RIM has been involved in a patent fight with NTP over the
wireless email technology used by Blackberry devices.

 RIM had petitioned the Supreme Court to review the claim by

the Virginia-based NTP on the basis that RIM is based in Waterloo, Ontario and

is therefore not subject to U.S. patent rules. 

This has been an ongoing battle since the Virginia U.S.

District Court ordered RIM to pay an 8.55% royalty on any U.S.

Blackberry sales back in 2003.

Today the Supreme court rejected the appeal which puts the

case back in the U.S. District Court but RIM hasn’t been sitting still and

relying on the lawyers, they have also developed an alternative technology

which, unfortunately for RIM, has been rejected by the U.S. PTO.