Do you think the mystery group behind NTP Inc. are second-guessing themselves for not signing a final agreement with Research in Motion that would have given them a staggering US$450-million to settle a patent dispute? It certainly seems that way as the U.S. Patent Office rejects a series of NTP's claims. NTP faces the growing reality that RIM will decide it doesn't have to pay anything at all, although you can expect another lengthy and expensive legal battle if this materializes. For NTP, they had a huge settlement signed, sealed and almost delivered but greed and the belief they could squeeze a few more millions out of RIM got NTP badly off track. If I were an advisor to NTP, I would have told them to take the money and run. This reminds of Toronto Maple Leaf tough guy Tie Domi, who was negotiating a contract a few years ago. Looking for a five-year deal, Domi's lawyer comes back and tells him the Leafs were offering $1.5-million. This make Domi extremely happy as it means a salary of $300,000 a year. Domi's lawyer, however, clarifies the offer is $1.5-million a year for five years. Realizing the offer is too good to be true, Domi tells his lawyer he wants to sign right there, right now. Too bad Domi wasn't advising NTP's investors.

Everyone knows the iPod has become the tool to carry thousands of songs but it has also become apparent that MP3 players with large hard drives can be used to conduct corporate espionage. In this month's issue of New Scientist magazine, there's a story about how easy it can be to steal corporate secrets by plugging an iPod into a PC. This practice is dubbed "Pod-slurping" - which is the ideal use of onomatopoeia - words that sounds like they are. For those who think the magazine is being an alarmist, there was a news story recently about a Chinese security officer, seeking asylum in the U.S., who downloaded data onto his MP3 player about Chinese citizens being spied on in Canada - before he fled the country. If companies become serious about keeping their secrets, do you think it will long before bringing you iPod to work is banned?
For a more comprehensive look at pod-slurping, check out Abe Usher's blog on information security.

Duncan Stewart, a partner in Tera Capital, has a different take on Nortel in today's National Post. Rather than being worried about the abrupt depature of the Two Garys (COO Daichendt and CTO Kunis), Stewart argues Nortel's going to be alright. With sales climbing a little and costs continuing to decline, he believes Nortel should become profitable and cash flow positive again. "They may be broken up, they may be bought, but most likely is that they will keep trying to grow a little, make a little money and pretend they aren't looking too long in the tooth," Stewart writes in his weekly column. While I can't disagree with Stewart's kinda/sorta optimistic outlook, the big unknown facing Nortel is whether its technology portfolio can continue to keep it in the top tier of telecom equipment suppliers. Accounting scandals can be resolved, executives can be replaced but if you're not selling leading-edge technology it doesn't give you much of an opportunity to see strong growth. Sure, sales will climb a bit if you can take advantage of a large, existing customer base but where's the fun in that? I'm looking for Nortel to be more pro-active strategically than spending nearly half a billion dollars on a mid-tier systems integrator. I'm looking for more than talk about India's prospects and why Nortel needs to lose nearly $200 million on a wireless contract with BSNL to establish a foothold in a market where plenty of other suppliers are scrambling for business. Maybe some of the answers will come at next week's AGM. You can be assured shareholders will ask all kinds of questions. Whether they will be happy with the answers is left to be seen.