The USPTO makes a favorable decision for Ontario-based Research in Motion with its finding.

With a $450 million USD settlement in play, NTP Inc. has been trying to force the courts to allow it to renegotiate its March deal with RIM. In turn, RIM wants NTP to comply with the terms of the negotiated settlement and accept the $450 million in exchange for ending the legal battle between them.

But NTP’s choice to return to the legal arena looks like a bad decision. Today, the Patent Office struck down two of NTP’s patents, which that company claims RIM infringed. This now makes four patents rejected by the agency, and it is reviewing four more.

“The patent office is taking a pretty big knife to NTP’s intellectual property portfolio,” said Rob Sanderson, an analyst with American Technology said in an AP article.

It’s a bit of good news for RIM, who has had a couple of significant network outages recently. RIM shares have been up on the news today, reaching a high of $81.60 today before dropping back to $79.96 USD per share.

An attorney for NTP says the patent finding has no bearing on the lawsuit with RIM. “The courts have said that a non-final ruling by the patent office won’t have bearing on litigation,” said James Wallace. He added that resolution of the patent issue could take years.

But RIM CEO Jim Balsillie rejects those assertions. “This is a very material development.”

David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.