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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 patents〔NTP US patents, http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&p=1&f=S&l=50&Query=an%2Fntp&d=PTXT〕 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. About half of the US patents were originally assigned to Telefind Corporation, a Florida-based company (now out of business) partly owned by Campana.〔Telefind US patents, http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=〕 NTP has been characterized as a patent troll because it is a non-practicing entity that aggressively enforces its patent portfolio against larger, well-established companies.〔Stephen Wellman, (''Will NTP Sue Every Wireless Company?'' ), Information Week blog, September 12, 2007〕 The most notable case was against Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry mobile email system. NTP also owns an equity stake in mobile email start up company Visto. ==Patent licenses== NTP has licensed its mobile email patents to Visto, Nokia, Good Technology,〔NTP licensees, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051215_806425.htm〕 RIM and all of RIM's partners. The RIM license agreement was part of an overall settlement of a patent infringement lawsuit brought by NTP against RIM (see below).〔NTP RIM Settlement, http://www.rim.com/news/press/2006/pr-03_03_2006-01.shtml〕 NTP has attempted to license to Palm, Inc., but license negotiations have broken down. On November 6, 2006, NTP announced that it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palm, Inc. in response to the breakdown in licensing talks.〔(Decker, Susan, "Lawsuit against Palm makes patent-infringement claims" Bloomberg News, November 7, 2006 )〕 However, on March 22, 2007, United States District Court Judge James R. Spencer (Eastern Division of Virginia, Richmond Division) granted a stay of proceedings in the NTP's lawsuit against Palm, Inc. Judge Spencer also granted Palm's motion to strike from the complaint NTP's allegation of wrongdoing at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.〔(- 2007+BW&type=qcna Somsak, Marlene, "Palm Applauds Virginia Court Ruling in Granting Stay" Copyright Business Wire 2007 )〕 In September 2007, NTP filed patent infringement lawsuits against several large telecommunications companies including AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. It asserted the same patents that it asserted against RIM. The cases have not yet been settled.〔(By W. David Gardner, “NTP Sues Cellular Carriers Over Alleged Patent Infringement” InformationWeek, September 12, 2007 01:36 PM )〕 The case has been stayed pending the outcome of the re-examination. In 2006 the New York Times reported that Geoff Goodfellow, a former Silicon valley entrepreneur who developed and commercialized wireless push email, was reportedly paid $4,000 USD per day in "hush money" to withhold information that could have potentially invalidated the claims in the NTP v. RIM lawsuit.〔http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/04/17/story-of-a-man-that-lost-6125-million/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「NTP, Inc.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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