"Crackberry" Addicts May be Going Cold Turkey

The Roberts court has refused to hear an appeal in the Blackberry patent infringement case, which could result in a complete shutdown of the service:

The Supreme Court Monday turned down a request to review a major patent-infringement ruling against the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device.

The high court rejected a petition by Research In Motion to review a federal appeals court ruling that could lead to a shutdown of most U.S. BlackBerry sales and service.

RIM (down $1.77 to $64.85, Research) shares fell 3 percent in morning trading on the Nasdaq, having fallen by as much as 5 percent immediately after the ruling.

On Oct. 26, Chief Justice John Roberts turned down a request by RIM to stay the lower court's patent infringement ruling while the high court considered whether to hear a RIM appeal.

The case goes back to 2002, when patent holding company NTP Inc. successfully sued RIM in a lower court. It won an injunction in 2003 to halt U.S. sales of the BlackBerry and shut down its service, although that ruling was stayed pending appeal.

The appeals court scaled back the initial ruling, but still concluded that RIM infringed on NTP patents.

RIM and NTP reached a tentative $450 million settlement on the dispute in March, but the deal fell apart in June. RIM wants the lower court to enforce the agreement.

I don't use one of those things, but I could certainly see how they could become addictive. Wailing and moaning will be heard throughout the land (at least in the business community) if the service gets shut down.