The voice of the BlackBerry community.
When a smartphone manufacturer patents a form factor, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to produce the device, it just means they don’t want someone else making it. RIM has put together a package of technical drawings of form factors that they believe could work with the BlackBerry platform.
What do you think? Would you like to see any of these form factors actually implemented?
Click through for more technical drawings of potential form factors
The battle between RIM and Visto has been going on for some time now. Last we heard, Visto had paid RIM for certain patent infringements but there were 21 patent claims outstanding for the US Patent Office to rule on. The patents concern email synchronization between devices and local servers.
It seems that yesterday, the two companies have come to a definitive agreement to settle all outstanding worldwide patent litigation between the companies.
The agreement includes a perpetual and fully-paid license on all Visto patents for RIM, a transfer of certain Visto intellectual property, a one-time payment by RIM of US $ 267.5 million to Visto and the parties executing full and final releases in respect of all outstanding worldwide litigation.
The settlement is expected to be completed during the week of July 20, 2009 and is subject to certain closing conditions.
Accounting for these dollars in the 2nd quarter of 2010, will involve including the payments as an unusual item to be expensed, with the remained classified as an intangible asset. This is a considerable sum of money and it will be interesting to see what effect the resolution will have on RIM’s shares.
Motorola and RIM have been in legal disputes for a long time. Back in February of 2008, RIM claimed that Motorola refused to license some of its patents “on a fair and reasonable basis”, mainly in rebuttal to an initial litigation by Motorola. RIM also accused Motorola of using 9 of RIM’s patents without permission, a complaint in response to Motorola claiming RIM is using 7 of theirs.
A magistrate judge recently ruled that Motorola patent-infringement claims against RIM will be put on hold while the U. S. government reviews the patents.
At RIM’s request, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office is taking a second look at 10 Motorola patents. Judge William Sanderson said in Dallas on June 15 that the civil suit was “still in its infancy” and it would help to have an additional review by the patent office before it goes further with those claims.
[Via]
The famous line here is “if you can’t innovate, litigate.” Saxon, a tiny company of only 5 employees, bought a series of patents back in 2007 from AMD. These patents are the grounds for their current lawsuit against RIM and a host of other device manufacturers. The company is trying to shut down US imports until they are compensated for the alleged breach of patents.
According to InfoWorld these patents are:
* A keypad monitor patent was granted in August 1993
* Interrupt marks patent was granted in June 1996
* Mailbox patent was granted in March 1997
[Via]
You might remember Ottawa-based Wi-LAN recently putting the legal screws to RIM over some CDMA and Wi-Fi patents in late June. Well, the dispute has mysteriously drawn to a close, but considering Wi-LAN is saying their financial results will be better this year because of the case’s turnout, it’s probably safe to say RIM settled with them and licensed the patents. Can’t win ‘em all, eh? When we first reported on the issue, a lot of people defended the company when called a “patent troll“. GeorgeD made a very good point…
The fact of the matter is that patent violations are part of the cost of doing business, only the big companies have largely gotten used to ignoring those who can’t afford to take them on, or otherwise buying them outright.
What do you guys think – do folks in the patent business get an unfairly bad rap around these parts? What differentiates a “patent troll” from more legitimate patent work?
(via Yahoo!)
WiAV Solutions has recently unloaded both barrels of legal action on RIM, Apple and Palm regarding what’s called Adaptive Multi-Rate compression, a GSM voice compression technology. AMR is used to detect silence rather than sound, altering music to accommodate voice, and power management. Up to ten patents are supposedly being infringed upon, but AMR was included in the GSM standard back in ‘98, so you have to wonder how it will all end up. WiAV only actually owns two of the offending patents, while they’re dragging their liscensor, Mindspeed, into the case to defend the rest of the technologies. On the whole, it sounds like this is a shaky case already, and probably won’t get too far. If you’re fluent in legalese, you can take a look at some of the court papers here.
(via Engadget)
Although Visto has coughed up the dough to RIM for some patent infringement already, the U.S. Patent Office has validated a whooping 21 patent claims prior to the next round of legalities. RIM had countersued Visto after some initial litigations, which are set to resume following RIM’s win earlier this summer. The patents in question surround e-mail synchronization between handsets and local servers – clearly something Visto has a stake in, and obviously a technology vital to the continued operation of BlackBerrys. Looks like Visto’s down but far from out…
Ottawa-based company Wi-LAN just opened up a can of legal whoop-ass, dishing out healthy servings to not only RIM but Motorola and UTStarcom. Wi-LAN has patents relating to both CDMA and Wi-Fi, and the ones they’re claiming infringement on are “MultiCode Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum” and “Method and apparatus for multiple access between transceivers in wireless communications using OFDM spread spectrum“. Bit of a mouthful, eh? The two both deal with transcievers and how they decode information, which goes to show how RIM, Motorola and any other manufacturers make for juicy targets for Wi-LAN. As if these guys actually have a “Litigation Update” widget on their site…
Looking to keep its legal winning streak alive, RIM filed a preemptive suit yesterday against German patent troll IP Com, asking a Texas federal court to declare that RIM hasn’t infringed on three IP Com patents. RIM has also asked the court to issue an injunction preventing IP Com from using the patents to sue RIM for infringement.
Not to be outdone, IP Com has countersued RIM in Germany, and IP Com managing director, Cristoph Schoeller, had this to say:
IP Com had been negotiating a license agreement with RIM when RIM filed its lawsuit, Schoeller said. “We thought we were in negotiations,” he said, adding that he believes RIM may be trying to intimidate IP Com.
Good. You’re a patent troll: you make money solely by suing other companies for patents you hold. You deserve everything you get.
Mere months after their victory over Visto in the United Kingdom, RIM has laid the legal smack down on the company once again. The Globe and Mail is reporting that Visto has agreed to pay damages to RIM after a Federal Court judge found that the company infringed on three of RIM’s patents. For those keeping score at home, this means the end of a suit that dates all the way back to the summer of 2006. Yeesh.
Both sides have yet to work out the damages Visto will have to pay, but RIM must be happy with the moral victory. Jack McCoy strikes again!
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