Indeed a good summary. I have a question in regards to your point 1 above. You said that,
"If the PTO decides that there's no patentable subject matter, NTP has nothing to enforce going forward. But, since there's already a judgment of infringement and validity, there are still damages for past infringement. Reexam could cut off the patent early; it can't reach all the way back."
I guess I am just trying to distiguish between patent law and criminal law here. In "criminal law" if a case is going on and it is found that evidence against the defendant was obtained illegally (or in this case the pantents are now found to be invalid), the rest of the case from that point forward that used that evidence to stand on is no longer valid. Looking at your statement, is it safe to say that pantent law is different?
Also, would this new Pantent Office finding only force RIM to pay for licensing on those patents up until the point that the Pantent Office offically declares them invalid?
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