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RIM ordered to pay $147.2 million in damages in wireless patent lawsuit, considering an appeal

By on July 14, 2012 at 8:17am in Mobile News


Well this news could not come at a worse time. While RIM is looking for ways to save $1 billion – such as laying off 5,000 employees and selling a company jet – they’ve been ordered by the San Francisco federal court to hand over $147.2 million in damages to Mformation Technologies. This case was originally brought on way back in 2008 as Mformation stated RIM infringed on two of their patents (6,970,917 and 7,343,408) that dealt with their enterprise server software.

According to a report in Reuters and the court filing, RIM needs to pay an $8 royalty for every BlackBerry device sold in the United States – which amounted to 18.4 million units. In a press release early this morning RIM responded to the decision saying they are “disappointed by the outcome and is evaluating all legal options. Additionally, the trial judge has yet to decide certain legal issues that might impact the verdict. RIM will await those rulings before deciding whether to pursue an appeal.”

Source: MarketWire
Via: Engadget & Reuters

  • gurtej08

    Let the bashing begin on 3..2..1

    • PayThemWithBB

      RIM will pay them with BBs!
      It’s all part of their strategy to get rid of extra stock!

  • Greedier

    Gotta love how it’s filled out by hand for such a large amount.

  • Yatti

    Not a dealbreaker.. 147m isn’t alot for Rim to shell out.. They’ll just pay in straight cash.. Could of been much worse..

  • Bob C

    R.I.P rim I love g3!!!

    • KC

      what does a cold war era 1950′s rifle have to do with this discussion? Heckler & Koch G3 may have some collectable value and I’m glad you love yours but this is a site about mobile phones.

      I try to make it a point not to argue with some one with a rifle, but seriously, if you want to proclaim the death of RIM at least have some kind of clue what the hell you’re talking about.

      Sure, I know you meant that you love you Samsung Galaxy S III. Samsung clearly used Roman numerals for the nubering though. Unless of course you were talking about a GT-I5801 Samsung Galaxy 3 Android 2.1 phone from 2010 which of course means you really don’t have much room to talk about any current BlackBerry phone being past it’s prime.

      You are the reason there should be a test and licensing requirement prior to being allowed to purchace a smart phone. If the phone is smarter then you, you shouldn’t own it.

  • Sean

    Actually that is a lot for them to pay when they are trying to save money and a company.

    • KC

      This will have no impact whatsoever on BB 10 or the current financial situation RIM is in. In case you missed it, the judge may invalidate the patent, which means the whole thing gets thrown out and RIM doesn’t have to pay anything. That’s the “…certain legal issues that might impact the verdict” part. See the jury was not tasked with deciding if the patent was valid, only if it had been violated. The judge still gets to rule on whether or not the patent in question is even valid. For example, in order for a patent to remain valid the holder of said patent must USE it within a certain time period. Also, if there was a prior example of what is descdribed in the patent being used by another before the patent was filed, it may be invalidated. The part where RIM states they do not believe the patent is valid means that either they are demonstrating that they were doing it first, or that this patent trolling company has sat on this patent for so long that it is not even enforcable anymore. So RIM will see how that plays out which could take months – remember this case has been going on for 4 years now, and then if it gets thrown out, RIM goes on with their business. if not RIM appeals and drags it out a few more years by which time either they will have more then enough cahs to pay or they will be out of business and this mFormation company will just be another creditor with a claim.

  • Bobby

    There goes part of their cash reserve which they are so proud of. Their last lifeline.

  • zzzZZZZzz

    Bashers and worried ppl alike, don’t worry about this sum affecting RIM that much. They will appeal the verdict (probably twice if permitted) and these appeals are most of the times as long as the initial trial which brings us to 2016-2020.

    By that time RIM will either re-emerge as a competitor to Apple, MS and Samgung, in which case they’ll have the money to pay, or they will sink even further, perhaps closing/selling the company, in which case they won’t really care about the payment. That’s of course if the appeals will reach the same verdicts.

  • shootpoo

    Yes!! More stake to the heart!!

    • KC

      From the sheer amount of unbridled intellect in your comment I would wager you probably eat poo as well as shoot it.

  • OgtheDim

    Well good thing they havn’t sold so many lately…

  • Atrix

    The vultures are picking at the rim carcass before rim goes bankrupt and there’s nothing left!

    • KC

      This will have nothing to do with RIM’s success or failure asa company as it has been ongoing for 4 years, and RIM will appeal if the judge does not through the verdict out by ruling the patent invalid.

  • Poulet

    What’s up with the 8 years old hand-writing?

  • Terry

    $8 a device in royalties? Geez, not even MS does that with its patent deals. Clearly just a cash grab.

  • steve

    well doesn’t that just suck

  • kardi

    Man…when it rains, it POURS for RIM!

  • Robbers123

    Hey let’s kick RIM while they are down and bleeding, douchebags

  • Nathen

    LMAO
    Gotta love the people that say it is not much. Really ? So laying off thousands of workers, selling everything you can ,downsizing and all is nothing ?

    Listen, if RIM was in a position say like APPLE then YEA it is not a big deal but RIM is not in a position to let $147 Million go ,all the while doing EVERYTHING they can to stay profitable or even worse Bleed money every day that passes.

    This is NOT good for RIM and will do significant Damage to them.

    • KC

      Other then the negative stories in the press that this generated, this ruling will have no negative impact on RIM at all in the short term.

      The judge has yet to rule if the patent in question is even VALID. The jury only ruled that the patent was VIOLATED, the judge still has to due his due dillegence and determine if the patent is enforcable. This will take months. If the judge finds the patent Valid, RIM will appeal. Remember, this has been going on since 2008 and appeal will take as long or longer then the orginal hearing. So this verdict won’t impact RIM’s bottom line until somewhere around 2016. By then they will either have tons of cash in the bank and be a real threat to Apple or they will be gone in which case this company will have to line up with the other creditors making a claim against the assets. But this will have ZERO impact short term and play no part in the success or failure of BB 10.

  • 2dfx

    You iSheeps are a quite humourous with your un educated remarks

    • KC

      I know the responces are laughable at best for the most part. Law should have at least 4 required credits to graduate high school. 1 credit for business law, 1 for civil law, and 2 for criminal law should be required. Laws impact every part of our daily existence, everyone should take at least a small interest in it.

  • Acco

    Having read the patents being asserted against RIM… they’re bullshit.

  • Francis

    Just to make sure they couldn’t survive, let’s make them pay … :O