Judge bans RIM from selling BlackBerry in the U.S.

Research in Motion (RIM) late yesterday was barred by a U.S. judge from selling its BlackBerry handheld or any accompanying services in the U.S. as a part of the company's ongoing legal battle with NTP. The injunction will remain in effect until all of NTP's related patents expire on May 12, 2012. The judge then stayed the injunction, pending an appeal by RIM. The court also ruled that RIM must pay NTP $53.7 million in damages. If RIM fails to win its appeal this decision could effectively end the company's ability to do business in the U.S. market. The decision has also quieted rumors that an IT integrator like Hewlett-Packard might acquire RIM. RIM and NTP have been engaged in a legal fight since late 2001, when NTP claimed that RIM infringed on its patents covering the use of wireless communications with email systems.

Web 2.0 is emerging as quite an interesting collection of technologies: WiFi, IM, blog, RSS, social networks .. and now SIP:

An Internet pioneer has started a Web phone company. Michael Robertson is marketing a device he says connects to broadband connections and lets users send and receive calls to other such phones around the world at no charge. "Today few people know about this," he said. "But it will fundamentally change the telephone business, just as MP3 has done with the music industry." Robertson founded MP3.com, one of the Web's first file-sharing sites. His new company, SIPphone Inc., is taking orders via its Web site for the devices, priced at $129.95 for a pair, but it shows no pictures of them.