Court Gives Support to NTP's E-mail Patents

NTP Inc., the patent licenser that extracted a $612.5 million settlement from Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) in a dispute over wireless e-mail technology five years ago, won an appeals court ruling in a battle over the validity of its patents as the company sues other smartphone makers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reconsider findings that invalidated elements of seven NTP patents, while upholding the rejection of an eighth.