Research In Motion officials said they’re actively negotiating with NTP through a court-appointed mediator with the goal of avoiding interruption of RIM’s BlackBerry messaging service. Neither side disclosed any details of the talks, which are clearly about how much RIM will pay NTP as a penalty for infringing on its patents and/or for licensing them in the future. Meanwhile, RIM has said very little about its claim to have an alternative technology ready to go. Any settlement will …

Research in Motion, which makes the popular Blackberry messaging devices, said it is very close to a software upgrade that circumvents patents owned by NTP. RIM in recent months appears to be heading toward a loss in NTP’s patent infringement lawsuit against them, and RIM will still be liable for damages or at least an out-of-court settlement. But by switching to a different software technology, RIM can avoid everyone’s fear of a forced shutdown via a court injunction. They’ll also avoid …

A new alliance of technology companies is pledging to acquire as many Linux-related patents as possible for sharing them as open-source technology. Calling itself the Open Invention Network, the group so far includes IBM, Red Hat, Novell, Philips Electronics and Sony. Patents are the software equivalent to weapons of mass destruction, so it’s vital to keep them away from companies like Microsoft, former Lotus ruler Mitch Kapor argues.

For more on the alliance:
– check out this …

> Dell lowers guidance. Article

> Supreme Court rejects Microsoft’s appeal on patent ruling. Article

> Hewlett-Packard to announce today that its Itanium blade servers will ship in 2006. …

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has signed a deal to license data compression technology from Forgent Networks that includes the popular JPEG imaging file format. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The patent covers the digital image compression used in cameras, cell phones, printers, scanners and other devices, according to Forgent officials. Over the past three years, Forgent has taken in more than $100 million from licensing the patent to more than 40 companies worldwide. The …

Six telecoms have filed antitrust claims with the EU against QUALCOMM that allege the company does not license its 3G patents on fair terms. Broadcom, Nokia, NEC, Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Panasonic Mobile have each filed complaints asking the EU to look into the matter. Some of the allegations include offering lower royalty fees to handset customers that buy QUALCOMM chips exclusively and trying to exclude others from entering the chipset market for mobile phones. The companies …

> Dwindling legal options for RIM? Article

> Aruba’s edge access point for VoIP. Article

> Panel criticizes post-9/11 tech security. Article

> Small company claims XML patents. …

With five Nobel prizes and more than 29,000 patents, IBM Research turns 60 today. Among its highlights: Fortran, magnetic storage, relational databases, dynamic RAM, the RISC chip concept, fractal math, superconductivity and the Data Encryption Standard. And don’t forget the insight of using punched-card technology to help the US Census Bureau in the late 1800s, the many generations of mainframes and the opening-up of the IBM PC de facto standards. (We’ll give them a pass on …

> Where’s the service architecture train headed? Article

> IBM drops patent counterclaims against SCO. Article

> Mercury Interactive heats up software testing. Article

> Hyperion melds BI, …

Microsoft officials tomorrow plan to give an update on security software at a Munich trade event. Before, Microsoft’s anti-spyware tools were mostly for consumers and small businesses; now, they’re likely to announce enterprise options. Whether the big-business edition will be its own program or part of the OneCare service–and how and when it’ll ship–are yet to be announced.

For more on the update:
– check out this News.com …