Rob Enderle: RIM Shut Down Likely

Rob Enderle assesses the Research In Motion situation at Technology Pundits. Enderle challenges the fundamental assumption "that NTP won't shut down RIM because it isn’t in their best interest to do so."

Enderle offers up some background from the case via an article in the Globe and Mail, and points out that:

NTP, while a patent holding company, was founded by the guy that wrote the patents in question and was blown off by RIM when he first brought their infringement to their attention. Also, many don’t realize that RIM was caught cheating in the trial which is what led to a more severe judgment. Finally, the owner of the NTP intellectual property, Mr. Campana, died during the trial process and his wish was to shut RIM down as he took what they did to him personally.

The article and Enderle's take are both interesting reads and Enderle concludes with:

I believe now that this is clearly trending towards a RIM shut down and place the odds more in favor of then against. More important though, I think this should be reviewed as a case by anyone with Intellectual Property responsibility because this clearly is now a case of what not to do and suggests that RIM was either getting bad advice or not following the advice they were getting (and most probably was simply not asking the right questions timely).