After nearly five years of litigation, Network Technology Partners Inc., settled with Research in Motion, Ltd., over a patent infringement dispute. RIM paid NTP $612.5 million for technology used in its BlackBerry communication devices.

The firm representing NTP did so on contingency.

The case drew attention on two fronts. On the forefront, the three million-plus BlackBerry owners were worried their service might blackout if the court ordered an injunction on the patented technology.

Among inventors and intellectual property attorneys, concerns over the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s power to reverse the validity of a patent came to the surface. The USPTO maintains the right to review the validity of a patent at any time, and during the dispute with RIM, the office did just that, reviewing the NTP patents in question.

The agency declared two of five patents invalid during the hearings, which shut down settlement negotiations. While the threat of a BlackBerry blackout forced negotiations to resume, the case still ignited efforts to revise the rights of patent holders in the United States.

NTP is a private technology firm with 20 shareholders. In November of 2006, NTP filed another patent infringement suit, this time against Palm Inc.