FEDS TAKE STAKE IN BLACKBERRY LITIGATION: The U.S. government has inserted itself into RIM's high-stakes patent fight with NTP, saying it wants to make sure federal workers won't be cut off from mobile access to their e-mail, should NTP prevail.

The Justice Department filed a "statement of interest" last week to explain how the U.S. government, with as many as 200,000 BlackBerry users, could be harmed if an injunction gets issued against Research In Motion Ltd. to stop selling the device and accompanying e-mail service.

NTP has promised several times in the past that they would not extend the injunction to any government or emergency personnel in the United States. However, RIM is claiming that there does not appear to be a simple manner in which RIM can identify which users of BlackBerries are part of the federal government, and which are not.