RIM: BlackBerry e-mail service is critical to U.S.

RICHMOND, Va. — Research In Motion Ltd. says its BlackBerry e-mail device is so critical that a court-ordered shutdown of U.S. service could threaten public safety and business productivity.

The Canadian company is trying to avoid a possible injunction, the result of a long-running infringement case won by NTP Inc., a tiny patent-holding firm.

In a filing Tuesday in federal court in Richmond, RIM argued that there is “exceptional public interest” in keeping BlackBerries beeping. And the idea of exempting government and emergency users from an injunction — which NTP has suggested — would result in errors, RIM said.

“It would be extraordinarily impractical, if not impossible, to devise and administer an injunction that would protect government and private-sector BlackBerry users who would be — or should be — excluded from an injunction,” the company wrote.

In a filing of its own Tuesday, NTP asked U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer for a permanent injunction. The Arlington, Va.-based company noted that RIM users have plenty of alternatives, and it would give them 30 days to make their moves.

The injunction, NTP said, would end widespread infringement of its patents by RIM and its corporate customers. “RIM must simply turn those accounts off in the same fashion as when a customer fails to pay its bill,” it said.

RIM’s filing included supportive comments by emergency, government and business leaders. The filing cited a story in The Times-Picayune that quoted New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin as saying his BlackBerry was the only thing that worked when communications broke down following Hurricane Katrina.