The latest case is just beginning, but it potentially could have a dramatic impact on small and medium businesses. RIMs BlackBerry has become a key productivity tool for many road warriors. Motorola has been at the forefront of handheld wireless developments, both with its handsets as well as its network infrastructure products.
Reuters reported that RIM filed a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas earlier this month. The suit alleges that Motorola has infringed on a number of RIMs patents and is refusing to pay the royalties associated with those items. In addition, Motorola is attempting to extract exorbitant licensing fees from RIM for its use of various wireless networking options, including having its handhelds transmit data over Wi-Fi connections.
Following the typical pattern in these scenarios, Motorola has counter sued. The company claimed that RIM infringed on seven of its patents in various BlackBerry 8000-series devices and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The company could take a position like NTP and eventually threaten to block all RIM devices from transmitting information over any wireless connections. That would be a difficult pill for RIM to swallow and also something that would create havoc for BlackBerry users.
How many of you work with the RIM BlackBerry? How about Motorola handsets? How concerned are you about the lawsuits?