By Robert Melnbardis
MONTREAL (Reuters) - BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM.TO:...) and rival Motorola (MOT.N:...) have sued each other over what they say are patent infringements for technology used in their mobile phones.
RIM alleges that Motorola is infringing on the Canadian company's patents and demanding "exorbitant" licensing fees, according to court documents.
The civil action, filed on Saturday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that Motorola infringed on a number of patents held by RIM.
In addition, RIM alleges that Motorola "is demanding exorbitant royalties ... for patents that Motorola claims are essential to various standards for mobile wireless telecommunications and wireless computing that RIM practices."
This includes technology that allows mobile telephone handset users to use Wi-Fi, RIM said.
At the same time, Motorola is refusing to acknowledge or pay royalties for certain patents held by RIM, the BlackBerry-maker said.
Ok, so this part isn't too ground-breaking. In fact, it isn't ground-breaking at all. RIM says that Motorola is infringing/not paying royalties for its patents and that the licensing fees for Motorola-held patents are out of control. So of course, Motorola sued RIM for the exact same thing. Not particularly mature, but to be expected.
What's interesting is that RIM is insinuating that the real reason behind Motorola's license fee hike is that their handset business is and has been slipping. Normally it might just be seen as insult-flinging for RIM to say "You're only charging us more because your own handset business is in the toilet!" but as things stand right now, that accusation may have some weight to it. We even reported here that Motorola was considering selling its handset business. That turned out not to be the case, but it is cold hard fact that they have slipped to third behind Samsung (full disclosure, I love my Samsung M500) and worldwide big dog Nokia.
I'm not too concerned about how much RIM has to pay Motorola or visa versa. I think it makes sense for there to be an investigation and perhaps for the court to reign in what may or may not be license fee gouging by Motorola. I care very much about what this might do to consumers. Most BlackBerry users pay anywhere between thirty and fifty (I pay forty) dollars per month to use the internet on their handheld and get that painfully addictive push email (email that comes directly to your handheld once it hits your inbox as opposed to you having to manually log into your account and check for messages) and it would be really shitty if we (all 12 Million of us) lost that. Especially because I'd be willing to be that the vast majority of us (at least those of us in the USA) are under contract to our carriers. So here I'd be, locked into a contract with a potentially neutered device.
So guys, please remember that your number one responsibility is to your customers. You know, the guys who actually rely on those patents?
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