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NORFOLK, VA., FIRST EAST COAST CITY DECLARED TSUNAMIREADY

Jan. 24, 2006—Norfolk, today, became the first major East Coast city with a well designed tsunami emergency response plan to alert residents and visitors of tsunami threats, and evacuate areas if necessary. NOAA, the federal agency responsible for tsunami and all severe weather warnings, officially recognized the City of Norfolk as the latest of 26 TsunamiReady communities along U.S. coasts. Norfolk also was recognized as StormReady, becoming one of nearly 1,000 communities across the country with a proactive approach to warning and educating the public about tornadoes, flooding and other severe weather. (Click NOAA image for larger view of a simulation of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 as projected on the NOAA Science on a Sphere exhibit at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center in Norfolk, Va. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

"City officials and emergency managers have worked hard to establish a 24-hour system to receive NOAA warnings and inform Norfolk residents about what actions to take if a tsunami or severe weather is headed their way. I'm particularly proud to honor the City of Norfolk as the first major East Coast city to become TsunamiReady," said Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "NOAA has expanded its tsunami detection and warning capability since the Indian Ocean tsunami, and community preparedness programs like TsunamiReady are key components of this effort. Ultimately it is the public's ability to react to such warnings that completes the chain in an effective tsunami warning process. TsunamiReady helps accomplish this." Lautenbacher noted that Indian Harbour Beach, a small community of 9,000 in Central Florida, was the first community on the East Coast to attain TsunamiReady status. Harbour Beach attained the designation July 7, 2005.

Lautenbacher was joined by numerous federal, state and local dignitaries at the recognition ceremony held at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center today. "The City of Norfolk is honored that NOAA's National Weather Service has recognized our community as the first major East Coast city to achieve TsunamiReady/Storm Ready recognition,'' said Mayor Paul Fraim. "I'm confident that our citizens deeply appreciate NOAA's commitment to saving lives through planning, education and awareness."

"Coastal communities like Norfolk contain 53 percent of the nation's population. Protecting our growing population along the coastline from the ravages of natural disasters is a major concern in Virginia. Hurricane Isabel in 2003 was the costliest disaster ever in Virginia, with more than $1billion in damages. All coastal communities in the United States are at some risk for a tsunami. We are honored that the City of Norfolk is leading the way in preparedness with the designation of being both TsunamiReady and StormReady," said Congressman Robert. C. Scott. (Click NOAA image for larger view of a simulation of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 as projected on the NOAA Science on a Sphere exhibit at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center in Norfolk, Va. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

"In our view, the City of Norfolk has made tremendous progress on educating its citizens about all natural disasters, from hurricanes to tornadoes and winter storms, to East Coast tsunamis. This program will enable the city to apply for additional reductions in the premiums paid into the National Flood Insurance Program, which could result in an additional savings of over $100,000 for the city and local taxpayers," added Ron Keys, director of emergency preparedness for the City of Norfolk.

The event featured the first public display of the Indian Ocean tsunami, plus a hypothetical Atlantic coast tsunami simulation based on an earthquake originating from the Puerto Rico Trench, presented on NOAA's Science on a Sphere exhibit at Nauticus. This dramatic simulation provides viewers with a contextual and experiential understanding of the dangers of tsunamis and the need for preparedness.

"The Indian Ocean tsunami and Atlantic coast simulations will be part of the permanent exhibit at Science-on-A-Sphere and will be open to the public after our winter renovation. A new NOAA tsunami kiosk will be added in the future. This new tsunami section will provide the public and worldwide visitors a dramatic and experiential understanding of the dangers of tsunamis and the need for preparedness," said Richard Conti, director of The National Maritime Center, Nauticus.

Norfolk also became the fifth Hampton Roads community to earn the StormReady designation. TsunamiReady is an outgrowth of the StormReady program created by the NOAA National Weather Service in 1999 to encourage communities to take a proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations and public awareness. The voluntary program provides communities with clear-cut advice through a partnership between local NOAA National Weather Service offices and state and local emergency managers.

To be recognized as TsunamiReady/StormReady, a community must:

• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;
• Have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public;
• Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally;
• Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars;
• Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.

"The mission of the National Weather Service is to protect lives and livelihoods from hazardous weather and other natural and man-made dangers. StormReady and TsunamiReady help us create better prepared communities throughout the country," said Bill Sammler, warning coordination meteorologist of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Wakefield, Va., which serves the Hampton Roads area. "Through StormReady and TsunamiReady, the City of Norfolk will be better prepared to help protect the lives and property of its citizens and visitors during severe weather events, as well as for the rare, but potentially devastating tsunami."

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.

Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners and nearly 60 countries to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes.

Source: NOAA News

How recent patent wins may help RIM

Commentary: Invalidations could save it millions

By John Shinal, MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:41 PM ET Jan. 25, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—A recent series of victories at the U.S. Patent Office is unlikely to help Research in Motion Ltd. stave off an injunction when it returns to a federal district courtroom next month, according to veteran patent attorneys.

However, the favorable Patent Office rulings—if they survive likely appeals by the small patent-holding firm that successfully sued RIM for infringement—may ultimately save the Canadian maker of BlackBerry wireless devices a few hundred million dollars in settlement costs, the attorneys said.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear RIM's appeal of a lower-court finding that the firm's BlackBerry technology violated patents held by NTP Inc., its legal options in the case are limited.

A hearing on the injunction—which could shut down BlackBerry service for all U.S. users other than those in federal, state and local governments—is set for Feb. 24.

"The pressure on RIM to settle has definitely increased," said Stephen Maebius, a partner with the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP.

That pressure persists even though the Patent Office has issued preliminary rulings invalidating most of the disputed patents held by NTP, said Maebius, a former Patent Office examiner whose firm is not involved in the case.

U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer, who has overseen the case since it was filed more than four years ago, has said in the past that his rulings and timetable won't be influenced by the patent re-examination.

That's reasonable, given that Research in Motion had a full trial before a jury whose infringement finding was upheld on most counts on appeal. A judge's mandate is to rule given the situation at the time of the trial, Maebius said.

"He's within his rights to ignore the re-examination, especially given the timetable," he said.

Last November, when Spencer denied a request by Research in Motion to suspend the proceedings until the Patent Office finished its re-examination, he pointed out in his ruling that the process was still in its early stages.

Since then, however, the re-examination has picked up steam, with the Patent Office assigning a group of examiners dedicated to the case to expedite it.

That has some Wall Street analysts hoping that the judge will wait until the Patent Office has finished its preliminary re-examination process before deciding whether to reinstate an injunction—stayed pending RIM's appeals—against the U.S. sale of BlackBerry devices.

Research in Motion shares, which were hurt for most of 2005 by fears about its litigation liability, rebounded in December, helped by its patent wins and a strong earnings report.

Still it could be years before a final ruling on the patent re-examination, given that NTP could appeal any decision to invalidate them in three venues—the Patent Office's Board of Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and, possibly, the U.S. Supreme Court.

That makes it unlikely Spencer will wait to issue an injunction during the hearing set for next month if the two parties can't reach a settlement. Final legal briefs on the injunction are due Feb. 1.

"This judge has said 'enough is enough,'" said Rod Thompson, a partner in the San Francisco office of Farella Braun & Martel who's practiced patent law for more than a decade. "I don't think his attitude will change just because the Patent Office is moving faster," Thompson said.

But that doesn't mean the process may not aid RIM in the long term, Thompson said.

Although the law isn't clear cut on the issue, it's unlikely that NTP would be able to collect any future royalties from a licensing agreement if the patents are invalidated.

RIM is on the hook for at least $200 million in past damages. That liability won't go away regardless of the outcome of the patent re-examination, according to Thompson.

Since future royalty payments would comprise the lion's share of a settlement agreement, however, a final invalidation of the patents would reduce the amount of a settlement by several hundred million dollars.

The two parties agreed early last year to settle the case for $450 million, but that deal collapsed. Although RIM in December called that figure its "best current estimate" of its legal liability in the case, some analysts have pegged its liability at twice that amount.

Based on legal briefs NTP filed in the case earlier this month, the firm is asking for a settlement in a range between $600 million and $1.5 billion.

But that amount—like the analyst estimates—assume future royalty payments. Without those, the final settlement amount could be far less.

Even the threat of invalidated payments might be enough to convince NTP to settle for less than otherwise would be the case, Thompson said.

An attorney for NTP, speaking on condition of anonymity, told MarketWatch that the firm would push for a lump-sum settlement payment, rather than tie the award to future sales of BlackBerry devices.

Asked if the threat of having the patents invalidated might decrease the amount NTP would settle for, the attorney called that assumption "reasonable."

"It's a card in their hand, but they better play it quick," the attorney said. In other words, before an injunction takes effect.

John Shinal is a technology editor for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

Source: MarketWatch

Microsoft takes aim as RIM battles in court

It may try to exploit the RIM/NTP fight with its own push e-mail offering

News Story by Jeremy Kirk

JANUARY 25, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE)—With Research In Motion Ltd.'s (RIM) BlackBerry service in danger of a shutdown for patent violations, Microsoft Corp. is ready to exploit the opportunity with its own "push" e-mail offering.

The timing of the court struggle could help Microsoft, which has been maneuvering its own Direct Push Technology for e-mail for the Pocket PC and smart-phone market. Microsoft says the technology should be available by the middle of the year, making a head-first slide into a heated market.

IT managers using BlackBerry software are caught in limbo, worried they suddenly might not have a wireless e-mail service, said Gartner analyst Monica Basso. Many enterprises planned to deploy more BlackBerries, and the litigation has thrown in doubt whether they should proceed or look at other options, she said.

“[IT managers] are supposed to keep providing high quality of service for their executives,” Basso said. “They can’t afford to have it shut down overnight.”

Microsoft is listening eagerly to those concerns. RIM's legal problems are "causing a lot of customers to come to us and ask about it," Scott Horn, general manager for the mobile and embedded devices group, said in an interview this week.

"It’s caused a lot of companies to say, 'Wow, mobile e-mail is really important, messaging is very important, and it's an enterprise mission-critical thing for my company,'" Horn said.

NTP Inc. is seeking an injunction against RIM to shut down its BlackBerry service in the U.S. After NTP won its patent infringement lawsuit against RIM, an injunction was issued in 2003 but was then stayed while the case was on appeal. An appeals court later upheld the infringement ruling.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it wouldn't review the dispute, and now a U.S. District Court will decide on damages and whether to impose a permanent injunction against RIM. An injunction could shut down the sale of devices and services by RIM in the U.S.

That could force Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM's push e-mail customers to look for new products; Microsoft, naturally, is willing to oblige.

A free upgrade for its Windows Mobile 5.0 software, called the Messaging and Security Feature Pack, is being tested now by device manufacturers and mobile phone operators, Horn said. That upgrade -- along with an existing upgrade for Exchange Server 2003 released in October -- enables push e-mail with Microsoft's software.

Devices equipped with the upgrade will ship in the first half of this year, Horn said.

Businesses are increasingly asking about deployment strategies and security issues with mobile devices, Horn said. Microsoft sees the potential for large growth; the mobile e-mail market stands at around 10 million users worldwide today, he added.

Microsoft has 130 million Exchange customers worldwide, Horn said, and it hopes to tap into that large base, as well as users of its other products, to promote its push e-mail software. Most users carry mobile phones, he said, "and our strategy is to go to that customer base."

RIM's BlackBerry has been a trailblazer in the mobile e-mail market, building a significant user base. But Microsoft's push e-mail product will hold an advantage for customers using BlackBerry software on Windows Mobile devices with Exchange Server 2003, said Tony Cripps, a wireless software analyst at Ovum Ltd.

Those users have a BlackBerry server between the devices and an Exchange server. With Microsoft's push e-mail, the BlackBerry server could be eliminated, Cripps said.

However, he added, it will ultimately come down to how secure and manageable Microsoft's software turns out to be and its total cost of ownership.

Microsoft has hedged its bets if its customers don't embrace Exchange Server 2003 and an armada of Windows Mobile 5.0 phones updated for the push technology. It has licensed Exchange server's ActiveSync protocol that allows for synchronization of e-mail to other mobile phone vendors, Cripps said. "It would be silly to suggest that you can only access this service by Microsoft devices," he said.

Microsoft isn't the only company that could benefit from RIM's uncertain future.

Nokia Corp. and other users of Symbian Ltd.'s operating system have also been chasing the mobile e-mail market. Last year, Nokia introduced a family of handsets targeting enterprise users, including one that looks similar to the BlackBerry.

Nokia also began selling software that supports push e-mail and is expected in the future to support remote access to other corporate data. That could complement services and software from Intellisync Corp., the wireless e-mail software developer that Nokia acquired last year.

Nancy Gohring of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.

Source: Computerworld

Well, that's all for this week folks. These are exciting times for the Wireless Messaging industry. Don't miss your chance to express your opinions. "Letters to the Editor" are welcome.

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