The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued the first final rejection on one the patents involved in the longstanding dispute between Research in Motion and NTP. It is expected that the USPTO will reject all of NTP's patents. What does this mean? It probably means that NTP will appeal the decision. RIM can claim a small victory here, but it's not over yet.

This latest rejection by the USPTO comes just ahead of a hearing Friday, when Judge James Spencer will decide whether or not to shutdown BlackBerry operations in the U.S. Could this rejection affect the judges decision?