RIM faces fresh lawsuit

IP infringement allegation

By Wireless Watch • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 28th November 2003 19:28 GMT

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Faced with an ongoing patent battle in the US that threatens to place injunctions on its products, RIM is focusing heavily on Europe and has launched a tri-band full color BlackBerry PDA this week – only to find itself attacked by another intellectual property lawsuit, this time from a Luxembourg-based company.

RIM and T-Mobile USA have been sued in Delaware by InPro II Licensing, a Luxembourg-based licensing firm, which claims that the companies are infringing its patents and is calling for damages "in no event less than a reasonable royalty". RIM - which is appealing against an injunction granted to US intellectual property company NTP that could potentially ban it from selling its products – has filed a suit in federal court in Dallas asking for a ruling that the InPro patents are invalid.

It said in a statement this week that InPro had shown "threatening and grasping behaviour". All the legal uncertainties surrounding RIM add to the problems facing all PDA makers in a declining market. One of the company's weaknesses has always been its lack of success in Europe, which it is aiming to reverse next year.

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