TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

RIM is now feeling the pressure more than ever, with the hearing over the lawsuits filed by NTP now being held. The BlackBerry service is going to come under a lot of scrutiny, and both companies are arguing back and forth to determine whether or not RIM will have to change the very functionality of BlackBerry.

NTP is suggesting a "30-day grace period" for users of BlackBerry if they get their way, though RIM has already been working on a work-around for quite some time that hopefully will give them a way out should this come to pass. BlackBerry has become very popular, especially in the corporate world, and many are itching to take its place, including Microsoft. They may soon get their chance, though shaking the faith existing BlackBerry users have in the product will be hard. The work-around is essentially a software update that keeps functionality the same, but does it with new code that does not infringe upon NTP patents.