Canada steps in to defend BlackBerry

[arcos]

Canada steps in to defend BlackBerry

TORONTO - The Canadian creators of the BlackBerry, the wildly successful wireless e-mail device embraced by so many Americans, say they will take their patent dispute with a Virginia company all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

And they just got a powerful ally.

The Canadian government has stepped into the patent infringement case, determined to protect the nation's greatest high-tech success story.

Canada claims a recent U.S. federal court ruling against Research In Motion Ltd., the Ontario-based makers of the BlackBerry, threatens to have a "troubling effect of chilling innovation by Canadian companies."

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6868490/

[KurtNYC]

1. Patent laws are good in theory

but in practice they operate more like a high stakes poker game -- whichever side of patent battle has more money to spend on lawyering can usually win these things. Granted this is international so that adds a whole new twist.

And it's vaguely ironic that microsoft's news service covers a story about companies that steamroll the little guy and "chill innovation."