This article is more than 1 year old

RIM faces fresh lawsuit

IP infringement allegation

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.

© Copyright 2003 Wireless Watch

Wireless Watch is published by Rethink Research, a London-based IT publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter delivers in-depth analysis and market research of mobile and wireless for business. Subscription details are here.

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like