Motorola hits RIM with another patent infringement case

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Motorola has joined the mass of legal battles at the start of 2010 by launching a challenge against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM).

The mobile company has claimed RIM infringed five of its patents, including its Wi-Fi access, application management, user interface and power management technologies, and has therefore allegedly “engaged in unfair trade practices.”

Motorola has filed the complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and called on it to issue an exclusion order stopping RIM from selling any products that infringe patents, as well as terminating the marketing, advertising, demonstration and warehousing of the handsets ready for distribution.

Jonathan Meyer, senior vice president of intellectual property law at Motorola, said in a statement: “Through its early-stage development of the cellular industry and billions of dollars spent on research and development, Motorola has created an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio that is respected by the entire telecommunications industry.”

He added: “In light of RIM’s continued unlicensed use of Motorola’s patents, RIM’s use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation, and RIM’s refusal to design out Motorola’s proprietary technology, Motorola had no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM’s continued infringement.”

IT PRO contacted RIM for comment on the case but it had not responded to our request at the time of publication.

It is not the only patent infringement case the company is involved in. Two weeks ago Kodak also filed a complaint against RIM and iPhone makers Apple for allegedly infringing patents with the cameras on their devices.

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