NTP Gets Extension in BlackBerry Case

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted NTP Inc.'s request for more time to respond to an agency review of patents at the center of a dispute over Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.

The patent office gave NTP, a patent licensing firm in Arlington, Va., until Feb. 28 to submit responses to nonfinal rejections of three of its patents, according to the agency's website.

NTP had accused Research in Motion, based in Waterloo, Canada, of infringing five patents, and a jury in Richmond, Va., agreed.

An appeals court upheld findings of infringement on two of those patents. The three patents that were subject to the decision from the patent office don't include the two found to be infringed.