I carry a Blackberry sometimes. It's a device for getting e-mail on the road. The company that makes the software and hardware, RIM, is being sued by another company called NTP for violating patents in the creation of the service.

NTP is a bunch of lawyers who got together and bought a portfolio of patents, then they seek out and sue (if necessary) companies who might infringe upon their patents they now hold. This is very much bottom-feeding.

There has been a bunch of back and forth between RIM and NTP. Last week, RIM was at risk of shutting down service because the two companies cannot agree on how to deal with the issue. In BusinessWeek, the following quote was posted:

"Don't be fooled by NTP's aggressive stance," wrote Mark Guibert, a vice-president at RIM, in an e-mail that included Milgrim's court affidavit. "They are simply trying to convince the court and the public that they're being reasonable because they don't want to look like extortionists."

NTP is a group of extortionists. Simply put, these rat bastards are benefiting from something someone else built. Every one of these pricks deserves a beatdown. And RIM, you're not off the hook either--you could have handled ALL of this better.