The BlackBerry Widow's Tale

Tell corporate executives they could soon lose their addictive BlackBerries, and they'll blow a fuse. Tell them the culprit is a tiny company whose only mission appears to be suing big companies such as BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Inc. (RIMM ) for patent infringement, and those execs will start muttering: "There oughta be a law."

But there's more to this story than meets the eye. Behind NTP Inc., the Arlington (Va.) outfit that is suing RIM, is a tall, skinny, entrepreneurial Chicago inventor, Thomas J. Campana Jr., who died before knowing how much his case might rock the wireless world. Late last month the four-year-old patent dispute between RIM and NTP moved closer to a potential court-ordered shutdown of RIM's booming $1.5 billion U.S. business -- or, alternatively, a settlement that could garner NTP $650 million to $1 billion, say analysts. Among the biggest winners would be Campana's second wife, Joletta, who stands to become the BlackBerry widow. She and NTP co-founder Donald E. Stout together control over 50% of the shares, says an NTP lawyer.