Blackberry maker to pay $53.7 million for infringement

The dispute dates back to a lawsuit filed in November 2001 by a patent holding company, NTP Inc. NTP claimed that certain RIM products were infringing on its patents covering a method of using radio frequency wireless communications in e-mail systems.

Last November, a jury found in favour of NTP and awarded $23 million to the holding company, subject to an increase if the judge found that RIM wilfully infringed NTP's patents. The judge did, so this week awarded aggravated damages of $53.7 million.

The judge has also imposed an injunction on the company, prohibiting it from selling those of its products - such as the BlackBerry pager - software and services that use the wireless technology in the dispute. However, the judge has stayed the injunction meantime because RIM would be "irreparably injured" if it took effect before the company had had a chance to appeal.

RIM confirmed on Tuesday that it will appeal the judgment, and plans to petition the Court of Appeals to stay the appeals process pending the re-examination of the disputed patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Henry Bunsow, RIM's lead counsel, put a brave face on matters:

"We are obviously pleased with today's ruling and believe that the District Court's decision to stay the injunction is especially appropriate given the frequency of successful appeals at the appellate level as well as the specific merits of RIM's appeal and the impending re-examination of the disputed patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

"RIM has always disputed the validity and infringement of the NTP Inc. patents and we continue to believe the jury verdict was wrong as both a matter of law and fact. We now look forward to the thorough re-examination of these patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office and to the review of the entire record by the Court of Appeals. While the remaining re-examination and appeal processes may take several years to complete, we remain confident that RIM will ultimately prevail in this matter."

Whether this positive spin reassures customers remains to be seen.

Michael Gartenberg, a Jupiter Research analyst told Internetnews.com:

"This is not good news for RIM as the US is their largest market. Even though the judge did not execute the injunction effective immediately, the fear and uncertainty will likely have many corporate users look (sic) to competitive solutions".