Research in Motion's BlackBerry faces critical court hearing

Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, faces a high-stakes court hearing in Richmond, Va., on Friday that could lead to an injunction shutting down e-mail service to most U.S. users.

The hearing pits RIM (as the Waterloo, Ont.-based company is known) against NTP Inc., a Virginia-based patent holding company that has been pursuing RIM (TSX:RIM) through the courts for years for alleged patent infringements.