13 companies — including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and the four major US wireless carriers — collectively settled today in connection with a patent infringement suit filed by a company called NTP Inc. NTP, which does not produce commercial products itself, holds patents connected to the delivery of email over wireless systems. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but HTC, LG, Samsung, and Motorola were amongst the other settling parties.
RIM somewhat infamously faced infringement charges from NTP back in 2001 after refusing to license patents from NTP's portfolio; the BlackBerry creator ended up fighting the claims in court but lost. After several years of appeals, RIM settled with NTP at a cost of $612.5 million. Under today's agreement, the 13 involved companies will be fully covered by NTP's set of patents.