From Yahoo News:

The U.S. Justice Department urged a federal judge on Wednesday to refrain from any plans to shut the BlackBerry portable e-mail service over patent infringement until the government gets more assurances its users will be exempted.

"We believe that there are still a number of serious questions to be answered as to how an injunction can be implemented so as to continue BlackBerry service for governmental and other excepted groups," the Justice Department said in a legal brief filed in federal court.

The department's comments were the second piece of good news on Wednesday for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (Toronto:RIM.TO - news)(Nasdaq:RIMM - news) whose shares climbed.

Earlier the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sided with RIM by issuing a preliminary rejection of a fifth patent in the court battle with patent holding company NTP Inc.

The patent office decision means the agency has now issued non-final rejections of all five patents at issue in a BlackBerry patent-infringement case before a federal judge.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM is pursuing the patent office challenge as it tries to fend off the 2003 patent infringement ruling that NTP won against the company in federal court in Richmond, Va.

But the final outcome of the challenge at the patent office is likely months away, while a potentially decisive court hearing in the patent infringement case is set for February 24.

I have a sneaking suspicion that RIM is going to survive this challenge. In my opinion IT Managers and Corporate decision makers should be looking at alternatives, of which there are many...

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