Iria

Analyst firm Gartner has advised its clients to halt 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 U.S. operations.

Holding firm NTP contends that it owns patents for the technology that powers the popular PDAs. At stake is RIM's right to operate in the United States. According to Gartner, NTP has already won an injunction that would force RIM to "shut down its U.S. 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 "U.S. BlackBerry users would lose messaging services...and international users would lose message service while traveling in the U.S."

However, Gartner expects the two companies to reach a settlement within three weeks because an agreement would be "in both companies' interests."
_____________
Read More / Source: ZDNet