Research In Motion's battle to fend off patent challenges to its popular mobile Blackberry device has received a boost from the US Justice Department and separate court rulings in the UK and US.
The US Justice Department has called on a federal judge to refrain from plans to switch off services to Blackberry users until the government can be assured of an exemption and uninterrupted service for its workers.
Wireless patent holder NTP has called on the courts to issue an injunction againt RIM while it tries to enforce a $450 million settlement agreed between the firms last year. A hearing is scheduled for 24 February to hear arguments on whether to grant NTP's request for a Blackberry shut down.
RIM is employing an 'exceptional public interest' argument in an attempt to fend off the injunction threat. The Justice Deparment's intervention on behalf of RIM could be critical in swaying the decision in its favour.
Separately, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary rejection of a fifth patent lodged against RIM by NTP.
In the UK, meanwhile, the High Court has dismissed patent claims brought against RIM by Luxembourg-based patent-holding firm InPro.
Late last week eBay filed a brief with the US Supreme Court arguing against the automatic issuance of injunctions in patent infringement cases. The brief, which was supported by a wide range of industry groups - including the Securities and Futures Industry Associations - points out that the threat of injunctions is increasingly used by patent litigation firms to extract very high settlements from technology companies, even when the underlying patent is questionable.