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""I'm shocked that RIM hasn't settled," said Gary Abelev, a patent attorney with the New York law firm Dorsey & Whitney. The company had the opportunity to settle the case for $450 million last year, but that deal fell through. An injunction would prevent the sale of RIM's primary source of revenue in its largest market, effectively crippling the company."

Somehow this comment leads me to believe that RIM expects the US Government, itself a heavy user of Blackberry, to come to their defense at the 11th hour. Makes me wonder what, if any, "instructions" may have gone to the USPTO on their behalf.

From UPI today:

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- U.S. patent authorities canceled one NTP Inc. patent that is part of the firm`s litigation against Research In Motion Ltd., maker of BlackBerrys.
The rejection of one of the five contested patents comes two days before a U.S. federal judge in Virginia was expected to rule on NTP`s request to close down BlackBerry operations, the Globe and Mail said.
The Patent and Trademark Office has rejected, in a preliminary review, the remaining four patents, and RIM said Wednesday it expects the office to formally reject those four patents shortly.
Investors and millions of BlackBerry users waited, meanwhile, to see if the patent office`s final decision would come before a possible court-ordered closure Friday of BlackBerry`s U.S. operations.