"An obscure patent case that could have been settled for a few million bucks has morphed into a billion-dollar dagger hanging over RIM, an enigma for investors and a distraction for legions of hooked BlackBerry users.... How it all happened is a twisted tale of bold inventions, hubris, pride, backroom lobbying and one colossal legal blunder by a sometimes naive Canadian startup eager to make it big in the vast U.S. market."

"RIM apparently couldn't look far enough into the future to see the train wreck ahead.... True to form, RIM's entrepreneurial bosses stood their ground. They regarded NTP as a vile patent “troll” — a company with dormant patents that preys on successful technology companies to extort fees from a hot-selling product."

"Through arrogance, blunder and bad advice, RIM's potential bill had shot up from a few million dollars before the trial to roughly $20-million when its case headed south at trial, to now hundreds of millions of dollars."

This article tells the story of Chicago inventor Thomas Campana Jr., the source of NTP's patents, and defiant RIM "whizkid" Mike Lazaridis, as well as unwinding the imbroglio that may now well cost RIM $1 billion or its future.

The article points out that RIM complaining about NTP is like the pot calling the kettle black. Don't for a minute think that RIM doesn't have an attitude to enforce its patents. RIM co-chief executive officer James Balsillie boasted, in asserting a freshly minted patent against U.S. rival Glenayre Electronics, “BlackBerry knockoffs will now need a licence from us. The amateurs out there have to stop.” Indeed.