Research in Motion Sues Motorola
For Patent Infringement
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
February 18, 2008 12:05 p.m.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. is suing rival Motorola, alleging that the company infringed on several of its patents and tried to extract "excessive licensing" fees from patents Motorola owns.
The suit, filed on Feb. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, accuses Motorola of "anticompetitive conduct" by demanding "unreasonable" royalties for several patents Motorola owns and RIM currently licenses. The patents pertain to a number of wireless technologies that have become industry standards, including a technology that enables the use of WiFi on a mobile device.
RIM, of Waterloo, Canada, is asking the court to find that Motorola has violated an agreement that it says required it to license those patents on reasonable terms and to determine that Motorola has infringed several of its own patents, including a patent for a mobile device "with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs."
Motorola said in a statement: "Motorola's strong R&D [research and development] and intellectual property are critical to our business. Motorola believes in the value of its IP and will move aggressively to protect that value on behalf of our customers, partners and shareholders."
The suit is another in a series of major setbacks for Motorola, whose share of the cellphone market has been tumbling. Under pressure from activist shareholder Carl Icahn, the company recently announced it is considering selling or spinning off its handset business, which has failed to produce any recent hits.
RIM's complaint alludes to Motorola's setbacks and argues that Motorola boosted its royalty demands in response to the "declining fortunes of its handset business" along with the fact that RIM has become a "more substantial competitor in the wireless market." As of December, RIM had 12 million BlackBerry subscribers world-wide, up from seven million in December 2006.
"Having suffered losses in the marketplace, Motorola has now resorted to demanding exorbitant royalties from its competitor, RIM, for patents that Motorola claims are essential to various standards for mobile wireless telecommunications," RIM said in the complaint.
Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com |
