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BlackBerry blackout looms for millions

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A growing legal quarrel over patent rights could lead to a shutdown of BlackBerry service to millions of subscribers in the United States.

A federal judge could soon order the plug pulled on BlackBerry's popular wireless e-mail service over a patent challenge filed by NTP against Research in Motion, the company that created the handheld device.

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The situation heated up further Thursday when software developer Visto licensed NTP's technology and then promptly sued Microsoft over alleged infringement of NTP's patents. Visto is asking a federal judge in Texas to block the introduction of Microsoft's Windows Mobile Direct Push wireless e-mail in the spring.

While the squabbling could result in a judge ordering service cut for more than 3 million U.S. BlackBerry subscribers, a window remains open for an out-of-court settlement that would avoid a BlackBerry blackout.

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