That multi-year case ended in 2006 in a settlement, with to satisfy NTP's patent infringement claims. And that was that...at least until this month when the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals heard a Freedom of Information Act-based (FOIA) lawsuit from NTP, meant to unearth more detail about the relationship between RIM and the U.S. Department of Justice at the time of the settlement, .

It's no secret now that the U.S. ; RIM's devices and associated corporate infrastructure have long been the choice of IT departments that require the strongest security safeguards available. And the Justice Department fits that description.

In fact, RIM gained its reputation as the most secure enterprise mobility option largely because of its continued work with various international governments and the that came from said relationships.

But right around the time that RIM and NTP reached a settlement agreement, NTP reportedly discovered that RIM was closer to the Justice Department than NTP previously understood.

To make a long, boring complex story short(er), a Richmond, Va., jury found in 2002 that RIM had violated various NTP patents. RIM appealed the decision, and in 2005, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit panel issued two rulings that ended up sending the case back to court, Law.com says.