Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) has not shut down communications with U.S. patent holding firm NTP and remains open to a "reasonable settlement opportunity," its chief financial officer said Friday. "You know if there's a reasonable settlement opportunity that we'd be there. I think we showed last year that we were willing to settle that", said CFO Dennis Kavelman at a CIBC World Markets conference.

With less than a week before a Feb. 24 court hearing on NTP's request for an injunction to shut down U.S.service of RIM's BlackBerry e-mail device, he also repeated that the Canadian firm's technical workaround will avert any blackout.

The two sides are due in court on Friday.