[rossf]

Gartner: Halt all critical BlackBerry deployments now
By Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia
07 December 2005 10:00 AM

Analyst firm Gartner has advised its clients to halt all mission critical deployments of Research In Motion's Blackberry e-mail devices because of a legal battle that could see a judge effectively shut down the company's United States (US) operations.
Patent-holding firm NTP contends that it owns the patents for the technology that powers the BlackBerry. At stake is Research In Motion's (RIM) right to operate in the US. According to Gartner, NTP has already won an injunction that would force RIM to "shut down its US operations".
The research note advises enterprises to "stop or delay all mission-critical BlackBerry deployments and investments in the platform until RIM's legal position is clarified" because "US BlackBerry users would lose messaging services… and international users would lose message service while travelling in the US".
However, Gartner expects the two companies to reach a settlement within three weeks, because an agreement would be "in both companies' interests".
There is a possibility that RIM could bypass the patent dispute by deploying a workaround but Gartner said this path could be "highly problematic".
"RIM claims its work-around is legally sound, but its history in the courts does not inspire confidence. Moreover, end-user validation and implementation would take time, resulting in a temporary loss of service," the research note said.
According to Gartner, enterprises should "not to sign any agreements that could involve them in the RIM/NTP dispute" and "demand that RIM discloses its work-around plans".
If RIM deployments are not mission critical, Gartner said enterprises could take no action for the moment but "assess the potential impact of operation outages of unknown duration".

[NJBlackBerry]

Hasn't this already been posted today?
Isn't there a dedicated forum to RIM's Legal Issues?

[jbairdjr]

This has been talked about so much.
Let's not be too quick to "Chicken Little" the situation.

[andrebsd]

"Analyst firm Gartner has advised its clients to halt all mission critical deployments"

Yeah, so one guy is advising someone; that doesn't mean much more than personal opinion.... My personal opinion; It's getting really old that everyones saying it's the end.

[rossf]

If you look at the date, this was issued today.

[andrebsd]

Andre: Who gives a ****.
By Captain Kringle, NewNet Brazil
07 December 2005 11:09 AM

Analyst firm owner Andre has advised its clients to quit giving a rats ass about RIM's legal issues.
-----

... And if you look at the date, that was issued today as well. It's still all opinion.

[NJBlackBerry]

Yes, it was published today. Actually I got the e-mail from Gartner last night. And it was posted here earlier...

http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=20950

[Jase88]

Ahhhh...doesn't affect us Canadians...thank goodness.

[northshorekid]

Nobody is going to lose their Blackberry. What a bunch of BS. Even if RIM has to bend over and share their profits, it's too big of a goldmine for them to just shut it down. You should check out this site below, read about the US Patent Office rejecting NTP's remaining patent.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11...tp_workaround/

Then again, if you're absolutely sure, it might be smart to buy some stock in palm.

[ChrisBenson]

Originally Posted by Jase88

Ahhhh...doesn't affect us Canadians...thank goodness.

Gotta luv it eh?