Research in Motion Ltd said a US judge had ruled the company had not infringed on Mformation Technologies Inc’s patent and overturned an award of $147.2 million that a jury said the Canadian firm should pay.
The verdict is a minor boost for RIM, whose stock has fallen more than 70 percent in the past year as customers abandon the BlackBerry in favor of Apple’s iPhone and a slew of devices using Google Inc’s Android software.
Mformation sued RIM in 2008, bringing claims on a patent for a process that remotely manages a wireless device over a wireless network, a court filing says.
Reuters
In July, a northern California jury directed RIM to pay an $8 royalty for every BlackBerry device connected to RIM’s enterprise server software, bringing the total award to $147.2 million.
RIM had argued that Mformation’s patent claims were invalid because the processes were already being used when Mformation filed its patent application.
Judge James Ware said Mformation failed to establish that RIM had infringed on the company’s patent and subsequently overturned the jury award, according to court papers.
“We appreciate the judge’s careful consideration of this case. RIM did not infringe on Mformation’s patent and we are pleased with this victory,” Steve Zipperstein, RIM’s Chief Legal Officer, said in a statement on Thursday.
Mformation has the right to appeal the ruling. However, if Mformation successfully appeals the ruling, the jury verdict would not be reinstated and instead a new trial would be conducted.
Reuters
