RIM liable for $140m patent claim

A San Francisco court has found ordered Research In Motion to pay $US147.2 million ($AU143.6 million) in damages after it was found to have infringed on a patent held by Mformation Technology.

Bloomberg reported the BlackBerry maker was found to infringe on a patent underpinning the BlackBerry Enterprise Server that allows companies to manage employees’ devices remotely.

The trial jury ordered RIM to pay $US8 for each of the 18.4 million smartphones that use the server, but the company could face further damages in future.

Legal counsel for Mformation, Amar Thakur, said current damages are only for royalties on past sales of devices to non-government customers in the US.

Adding damages for future sales outside the US and to government customers could increase the amount by two to three times.

Mformation sued RIM four years ago, arguing the Canadian company had infringed two of its patents. The two companies were in licensing discussions over mobile device management software but RIM reportedly walked away from the table.

After refusing to take up a license, Mformation says RIM modified its software to include the patented systems.

RIM denied that it had done anything wrong and argued the patents were invalid.

The Blackberry maker has a request pending before the court to reverse the damages verdict.

A spokeswoman for the company pointed out that while the jury found in favour of Mformation on one claim, five of eight others were found invalid.