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Thomas J. Campana Jr.

Thomas J. Campana Jr.
Born 26 January 1947
Died 8 June 2004
Occupation Inventor, entrepreneur
Spouse(s) Maxine Campana, Joletta Campana

Thomas J. Campana, Jr. (26 January 1947 – 8 June 2004) was an inventor. He was awarded about 50 US patents in his 30-year career.

His most significant contributions were in the field of push email. He invented and patented a number of new technologies that were later incorporated into Research in Motion's BlackBerry mobile email devices. In 2006, after a protracted legal battle, Research in Motion paid US$612.5 million to license the patents.

Thomas Campana was the son of a milkman and grew up in the southside of Chicago.

Thomas had an electrical engineering degree from University of Illinois. He was a staff sergeant for the United States Air Force working with radio.

In 1990 Campana invented a form of wireless push email and filed the first in a series of patent applications on it. The technology was evaluated by AT&T but later dropped.

Research in Motion developed a similar technology which they incorporated into their BlackBerry devices. The Blackberry devices were commercially successful, but when Campana tried to license his patents to Research in Motion, they refused to pay a fee.

In order to enforce his patents, Campana, along with his attorney, formed a patent holding company, NTP Inc. Campana assigned ownership of the patents to NTP and NTP filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Research in Motion.

In 2006, after a long legal battle, Research in Motion settled the case and paid a $615 million license fee to cover not only their infringement, but the infringement of all of their customers and business affiliates.


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