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So this may be it, ‘Berry addicts. After all the courtroom battles and patent disputes and appeals, RIM’s Blackberry<\/a> network may actually be on the ropes relatively soon, thanks to a tiny company whose sole business is trying to squeeze money off a patent from a deceased developer<\/a>.<\/p>\n The latest word is that a last-ditch meeting between the two sides yielded no progress<\/a>:<\/p>\n Late last week NTP, the company who’s suit threatens to shut down Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry service, made a settlement offer to RIM in the form of a 5.7% royalty on future RIM BlackBerry sales until 2012. Merrill Lynch valued such a deal at US$900 million. RIM rejected the offer and countered with an offer of their own that NTP felt was unacceptable. After this last round of talks failed, it now appears that the companies are no longer negotiating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n All that’s left is a potential injuction that could be imposed by the courts, effectively ending the Blackberry service in its current form.<\/p>\n The interesting thing is that RIM swears that it has a workaround<\/a> that can be implemented in the event an injunction is enforced. However, RIM is tight lipped about the details, and the question that has been burning for a long time is: if the fix exists, why not just implement it right now<\/strong>?<\/p>\n