Motorola and RIM Exchange Lawsuits

Motorola Inc. and RIM have sued each other over patents related to certain types of cellular telephone technology after they failed to reach a cross-licensing agreement that expired in 2007.

"This matter is significant to Motorola, as RIM is deriving a lot of value out of its use of Motorola's patents," said Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson. Motorola's suit seeks to have a judge declare that Motorola is not infringing on five of RIM's patents, including two for a hand-held device "with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs." One could assume they are referencing the Moto Q. The other suit, citing BlackBerry's 8000 series of smart phones, including versions of the Curve and Pearl, claims that the BlackBerry-maker continues to violate seven of Motorola's patents. The suit also names BlackBerry's software that transmits data between the mobile devices and corporate servers.

RIM's complaint claims that Motorola has infringed on nine patents and that it is trying to extract excessive royalties from RIM for use of Motorola technology. "Having suffered losses in the marketplace, Motorola has now resorted to demanding exorbitant royalties," RIM fired back in their suit.

Source: Chicago Tribune