TeleCommunication Systems based out of Virginia came knocking on RIM’s door yesterday about their patent for an e-mail system which handles multiple logins under one app. Not only is TCS looking for damages, but they also want an injunction made against RIM to stop them from using it. C’mon, now. Isn’t the money enough? These kind of things have been known to end amicably, so here’s hoping we don’t have another NTP on our hands.
Tag: litigationPage 2 of 3
RIM gets hit with e-mail patent lawsuit
4 Comments
RIM is bringing the hammer down on LG’s Black Label, consisting of their Chocolate series of phones, due to supposed trademark violation. Their pitch is that the similar names could confuse customers into unwittingly buying the wrong device. A similar situation arose from the Blackjack in February, which ended peaceably, so there’s no reason to think that this won’t as well. Still, does that look like a BlackBerry to you? If it was another smartphone with a full QWERTY keypad that was called Black-something, I could see RIM getting uppitty, but it’s hard to sympathize for customer who confuses a Chocolate for a BlackBerry.
Yesterday was the day that RIM was to step up to the Ontario Superior Court to put the stock option issue to bed. Last we heard they had amended their plans and announced the settlement. The whole thing blew up back in March, when Jim Balsillie stepped down as RIM’s chairman because of the unfair way in which executives were receiving stock options. The Ironworkers Ontario Pension Fund demanded upwards of $100 to make reparations, but Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have both forked up just $2.5 million each in order to offset legal costs, in addition to the $5 million already paid. Wow, way to haggle. Under the new agreement, individual directors won’t be able to get stock options so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.
RIM has quietly come to agreeable terms with Eatoni, who were in legal disputes with RIM over a predictive text technology in ambiguous keyboards (read: SureType). The patent in question helps devices chose words to be typed based both on ergonomics and the context of the word. Under the settlement, RIM has backed off on its countersuit against Eatoni, and will now be working with them to implement the technology in future BlackBerrys.
Visto’s been legally nagging at RIM for awhile now, but now the second of their four patent objections has been dismissed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds that one patent regarding secure network file transfer has been in use by Lotus Notes since the 90s. This is just a preliminary rejection mind you, meaning Visto now has the opportunity to revise their complaint in scope or logic before it officially goes to court next July. Now, what the patent office says may have no ultimate bearing on the case proper, considering RIM had that much going for them in the NTP case, and we all know how that one ended up.
If you’ve been following wireless news, you’ll have heard about FCC’s push to designate a chunk of the wireless spectrum as open access, meaning there would be some airspace that isn’t tied down to a particular carrier. Progress has been pretty steady on opening some of the 700mhz range up for bid in January, but Verizon has finally piped up and called the whole thing “arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law.“, whatever that really means. Skype and Google have been all for the change, but Verizon’s litigation will likely slow this whole thing down.
We all have fond memories of NTP, don’t we? That’s right, those guys who sued RIM for patent infringement last year, and eventually settled? Shortly thereafter, they moved on to Palm. Well, now they’ve turned their sights onto major U.S. carriers AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, armed with grievances of the wireless e-mail patent flavor. The lawsuits were filed in a Virginia District Court on September 7th., and will prove to be yet another long, drawn-out legal battle. Man, these guys have got some cajones, going after industry giants like that. NTP doesn’t do much beyond sit on patents, which is clearly proving to be a lucrative business.
Australian carrier Telstra has been trying to bring their Next G service to the continent, which entails shutting down their existing CDMA network by early 2008. However, Australia’s Communications Minister Helen Coonan has blocked the shutdown until it has been definitively proven that Next G will provide equal or better service than the CDMA network, which means Telstra would have to run both for an indeterminate amount of time, which they claim they can’t afford. The whole mess has resulted in Telstra taking legal action against the minister, citing “the Minister has breached her Ministerial duties by making up her mind about the imposition of the license condition to block the closure of the old CDMA network – an integral part of the Next G network plan – even before receiving submissions and evidence from Telstra as to why such a license condition was unnecessary and bad for the bush”. So, who’s right here? Does the minister require an actual side-by-side comparison to tell if Next G will be an acceptable replacement, or is it good enough to have it all on paper?
The ongoing spat between chip manufacturers Qualcomm and Broadcom continues this week, but Qualcomm’s managed to stem the tide of litigations a fair bit. A US Court of Appeals has ruled that two out of Broadcom’s eight initial charges would be able to proceed in court, even though the whole thing was put to bed in August 2006 by a District Court. The dismissed charges involved CDMA chips and Qualcomm’s acquisition of OFDM/OFDMA developer Flarion. Broadcom has already locked down a chip ban, but Qualcomm still has some fight left. We’ll keep you posted on the next move in this bitter grudge match.
It looks like Atari’s none too happy about BrickBreaker, the game that’s been preloaded on BlackBerrys since the 7200, and has been pursuing legal action. The resemblance to Atari’s Breakout is noticeable, and you can hardly blame Atari for the litigation. RIM has no doubt enjoyed the enterprise popularity in the game, and by association mobile games have likely seen a boost in visibility. Two weeks ago, Superior Court Judge Harvey Spiegel motioned for the case to be moved to the Superior Court of Ontario in Toronto.
