RIM rocked as Mformation wins £95m patent award
Blackberry manufacturer says Mformation mobile management patent claim was not valid
By John Ribeiro | Published: 09:07, 16 July 2012
A US jury has ruled Research In Motion infringed a patent relating to wireless device management owned by assignment by mobile device management technology provider iMformation Technologies.
The jury awarded Mformation $147.2 million (£94.6 million) in damages based on past sales in the US of BlackBerry smartphones, connected to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server from late 2008, when the lawsuit was filed, through the trial date, Mformation said on Saturday.
The jury decided that $8 per unit was reasonable royalty to be paid to Mformation for 18.4 million units sold, according to court documents. The award does not include future royalties, sales to the US government and sales outside the US, Mformation said.
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RIM said it "is disappointed by the outcome and is evaluating all legal options." The trial judge has yet to decide certain legal issues that might impact the verdict, and RIM will await those rulings before deciding whether to pursue an appeal, it added.
The company said it does not believe that the Mformation patent in question is valid.
The decision by the jury is likely to add to RIM's woes, including the delay of a key update, BlackBerry 10, to the first quarter of 2013.
The company which faces competition from Apple and phones running Android saw revenue drop in the quarter ended2 June to $2.8 billion from $4.9 billion a year earlier. It also reported a net loss of $518 million, against a profit of $695 million a year earlier.
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