Injunction

Seven months after a jury awarded it more than $12 million in a patent infringement lawsuit, Annapolis-based TeleCommunication Systems Inc. has filed a similar suit - this time against the makers of the addictive BlackBerry. The suit, which TeleCommunication said it filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. is infringing upon a patent that governs the way wireless users access e-mail applications. It asks the court to award damages and issue an injunction to prevent RIM from further infringement.

The losing candidate in last month's race for the Long Reach village seat on the Columbia Council has hit several hurdles in her efforts to unseat the winner.On Thursday, Howard County Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. thwarted Deborah Tolson's attempt to remove incumbent Cecilia Januszkiewicz from the Columbia Council. He denied her an ex parte injunction -- or refused to remove Januszkiewicz without hearing the defendant's side of the story -- because of "insufficient evidence."Tolson had also requested a preliminary and permanent injunction, but Thomas M. Meachum, lawyer for the Long Reach Community Association, said Friday that she made errors that rendered her complaint invalid.

The legal wrangling over Adult Video & Books on U.S. 1 in Elkridge continued yesterday in court, and the fate of the business remains up in the air.A Howard County circuit judge denied the business' request yesterday to block a county effort to shut down the operation. The judge made his decision after a county attorney assured him that his office would not enforce an injunctive order until the court rules on Adult Video's pending appeal.Deputy County Solicitor Paul Johnson told Circuit Judge James B. Dudley that the county reserves the right to file a motion for an injunction but would not enforce an injunction until after the court reviews an Aug. 27 Board of Appeals decision ordering the business to close.

Long Reach officials wrongfully turned residents away in last month's Columbia Council election, a village committee conceded last night, but the results will not be changed.The three-member committee unanimously agreed that four residents who were denied ballots, or whose ballots were not counted in the race between incumbent Cecilia Januszkiewicz and challenger Deborah Tolson, should have been allowed to vote.Januszkiewicz won the April 17 election by 13 votes out of 215 cast.Januszkiewicz's husband, M. Albert Figinski, who attended the meeting in her place, said: "The election was certified on the day of the election, it remains certified and my wife remains the winner."

County Sheriff Norman M. Pepersack Jr. was sued yesterday by his Democratic opponent in this year's election, former Deputy Sheriff Anne K. Strasdauskas, who wants the Baltimore County Circuit Court to stop Pepersack from releasing confidential personnel records.A hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. today before Judge James T. Smith Jr.Strasdauskas, represented by the Fraternal Order of Police, is seeking an emergency court order and a permanent injunction against Pepersack, an eight-year Republican incumbent who released her employment records last month, including disciplinary allegations, during an interview with The Sun.The suit also seeks to prohibit Pepersack, a former Marine and state trooper with nearly 40 years' experience in law enforcement, from retaliating against deputies and other sheriff's office employees as a result of the legal action.

In an article about a temporary injunction halting the closing of the St. Paul Street branch of the Pratt Library, The Sun incorrectly reported that the judge who made the decision said he is a member of the Friends of the St. Paul Branch, the group that requested the injunction. In fact, Circuit Judge John Carroll Byrnes is a member of the Friends of the Enoch Pratt Library.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 8/30/97

The most significant confrontation in this year's baseball playoffs will not take place inside the ballparks of any of the eight cities whose teams are still playing. It will happen in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia today, when officials for Major League Baseball attempt to block the umpires from going out on strike.Richie Phillips, who heads the umpires union, said last night that, barring an injunction, the battle isn't over. The umpires want Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar to serve a harsher penalty immediately for spitting at umpire John Hirschbeck last week in Toronto.

The 1995 baseball season is scheduled to begin in 12 days, but major-league players remain on strike and 27 of the 28 major-league clubs are preparing to start without them. The labor dispute that wiped out the last two months of the 1994 season and forced the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series is threatening to turn a once-flourishing industry into a mockery, but there have been no real negotiations for the past two weeks.So where does baseball go from here? Seven months into the longest work stoppage in the history of major professional sport, there still are more questions than answers about the future of the game and the likely outcome of this war between the players and owners.

In a continuing battle over the display of illegal real estate signs along state highways in Harford County, the anti-sign forces appear to have scored a small victory.A court injunction against Rommel Crabtree, a Creswell activist who single-handedly destroyed hundreds of illegal signs in weekend forays this fall, was lifted Monday in Harford County Circuit Court, according to court documents. In effect, the ruling allows him to continue to remove the illegally posted signs.Questar Homes Inc. has sued Mr. Crabtree, asking for $900,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, the documents show.

The state law that requires insurance companies to offer greater coverage for mental illnesses has been suspended again, less than 24 hours after a Baltimore Circuit Court judge lifted an injunction that had kept it from going into effect.Yesterday, Chief Judge Alan M. Wilner of the Court of Special Appeals granted a new injunction against the law, pending a hearing Monday in his court.The law requiring insurers to offer mental illness benefits comparable to those for other illnesses was to have become effective Jan. 1. Lawyers for insurers and a policyholder filed suit Dec. 28, claiming the law was vague.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge said Thursday that he will issue a written ruling on a request to halt the construction of a new elementary school in Towson. Judge Michael Finifter made the decision after listening to arguments from attorneys for the county Board of Education and a group of Towson residents who filed the motion for a preliminary injunction along with a lawsuit against the board. It is unclear when Finifter will release his judgment, but he generally does so within two to four weeks, according to his law clerk.

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's injunction that bars a retired Navy hospital ship decaying in Baltimore's harbor from being moved overseas. M/V Sanctuary was rotting in the Patapsco River for 18 years until it was sold at a court-ordered auction in October to Potomac Navigation Inc. The Delaware-registered company planned to tow the ship to Greece in December, but the move was delayed by costly legal wrangling with the U.S. government. In November, the U.S. District Court in Baltimore granted the Environmental Protection Agency an injunction to prevent Sanctuary from leaving U.S. waters.

Seven months after a jury awarded it more than $12 million in a patent infringement lawsuit, Annapolis-based TeleCommunication Systems Inc. has filed a similar suit - this time against the makers of the addictive BlackBerry. The suit, which TeleCommunication said it filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. is infringing upon a patent that governs the way wireless users access e-mail applications. It asks the court to award damages and issue an injunction to prevent RIM from further infringement.

I'm going to grant the injunction. I think one Grinch in town is enough." - HELEN FREEDMAN, New York State Supreme Court justice, granting an injunction Wednesday ordering the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas to resume despite the continuing stagehands' strike ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Harford County judge put Aberdeen's Nov. 6 election in limbo yesterday when he issued an injunction and ordered a disqualified candidate who had sued the city to pursue his appeal through the City Council. City officials said the decision in Circuit Court all but guarantees a postponement of the election. "The collection of evidence and all the open meetings and the scheduling of witnesses, it's going to take the full 45 days," Mayor S. Fred Simmons said of the appeal process. "It's intricate and takes great deal of time, because there are lots of components."

NEW YORK -- The chief executive officer of leading Internet phone provider Vonage Holdings Corp. resigned yesterday amid a continuing patent dispute that has threatened the company's business and phone service for 2.4 million customers. Michael Snyder stepped down as chief executive and was replaced temporarily by Jeffrey A. Citron, the former CEO and current chairman. Vonage, offering a preview of first-quarter results, also said that to save $140 million it would slash 10 percent of its more than 1,700-person work force, freeze new hiring and cut $110 million from planned marketing.

Atholton wheelchair athlete Tatyana McFadden filed suit in federal court yesterday, asking for an overturning of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's February ruling that she can't score points for her team at either the regional or state outdoor track and field meets this year. Deborah McFadden, Tatyana's mother, said they're asking for injunctive relief so she can score points for her team when the regional and state meets come up in late May. "It's fair and it's equitable," Deborah McFadden said.

It seems there are three certainties in life for John Baptist Kotmair Jr. - death, taxes and court. Kotmair, who served two years in federal prison in the 1980s for income-tax evasion, was accused yesterday by the Justice Department of selling tax-fraud schemes. Federal prosecutors in Baltimore are seeking an injunction against 70-year-old Kotmair and his Westminster-based Save-A-Patriot Fellowship, as well as a court order directing the group to turn over customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers.

The Carroll County Republican Central Committee cannot replace a member it removed in July until the court decides whether the ouster was legal, Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway ruled yesterday. The ruling means that Joseph F. Burns Jr. is still a member of the committee with full rights and privileges. He can attend meetings and participate in decisions, according to the temporary injunction issued against the committee, which traditionally has nine members elected by county Republicans.

In another legal blow against Carroll County's growth freeze, a Circuit Court judge granted a preliminary injunction yesterday that would force the county to process a developer's subdivision plan just outside of Westminster. It is the third time Judge Michael M. Galloway ruled against the county's one-year freeze on residential development, which expires in June. In November, Galloway ordered the county to resume processing two subdivision plans after he granted similar injunctions. Appeals in those cases are pending in the state's second-highest court.