We're not sure Motorola's turnaround strategy should involve picking legal fights with an undisputed market leader, but now that CEO Greg Brown's
personally in charge, it looks like the gloves are off -- Moto's just filed a lawsuit claiming that RIM infringed on seven of its patents in various BlackBerry 8000-series devices and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The move comes as a response to a patent suit filed by RIM on Saturday, which claims that Motorola infringed several of its patents, demanded "exorbitant" royalties for Moto patents covering wireless communications, and refused to pay royalties on RIM patents. We'd say this one will drag on forever and then settle (like a certain other
RIM patent case), but with Motorola's fortunes fading fast and
no suitors in the wings, this just may prove to be one burden too many.
Disclaimer: Nilay's a lawyer, but he's not your lawyer, and this post isn't meant to be legal advice or analysis.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason @ Feb 18th 2008 1:29PM
Motorola describes the very water they're drowning in.
E71 @ Feb 18th 2008 8:02PM
GO MOTOROLA! Woooooh!
John Johnson @ Feb 18th 2008 1:32PM
They should just say "Hey, take us"
brendan @ Feb 18th 2008 1:36PM
title says RIM suing Moto, article says Moto suing RIM. Who's suing who?
brendan @ Feb 18th 2008 1:40PM
Ok, its been changed...
Kalen @ Feb 18th 2008 1:39PM
RIM Sued Motorola on Saturday, so now Motorola is suing them back.
derX @ Feb 18th 2008 1:49PM
RIM sues Moto.
Moto sues RIM.
They're only bickering because they're in love.
.....or because RIM seriously wants Moto to fail. Either works.
Natedog @ Feb 18th 2008 5:22PM
Sounds like love to me. Or something.
Pete @ Feb 18th 2008 1:53PM
The entire reason that large companies retain large patent portfolios is for just this sort of instance. Consider it insurance - and regardless of Motorola's pitfalls recently they do hold quite a bit of intellectual property (aka a big stick). It is kinda early to jump to conclusions... but it is very possible that Motorola has a bigger stick on this one, and that RIM bit off more than they can chew. Then again i'm not a patent lawyer.
oGMo @ Feb 18th 2008 2:06PM
No, large companies hold large portfolios to *defend* against this sort of thing. Usually it comes down to who holds the bigger stack.
It's a sign of the end when large companies who are losing money and business who start to sue others.
Kamokazi @ Feb 18th 2008 1:56PM
It's Blackberry ENTERPRISE Server, not Exchange server. (It does interface with Microsoft Exchange Server.) Unless there is some other product out there I am not aware of. The original article appears to have screwed it up, not Nilay.
Johan S @ Feb 18th 2008 2:56PM
RIM battling Motorola for the title of Last Place.
Good luck.
Josh @ Feb 18th 2008 3:06PM
Hey, i actually like RIM... i might be a bit partial because my motorola is a total POS and i have really been tempted to just throw it off a bridge for the satisfaction of knowing it will never screw me again.
Blaktornado @ Feb 18th 2008 3:18PM
The image contradicts the title.
It says RIM and Motorola sue each other, yet the picture quite clearly makes it look like RIM is suing motorola, and not the mutual sue it is. Curses you and your biased-ness!
phanbouy @ Feb 18th 2008 3:24PM
no sad face moto logo? at least give it a black eye...
Adam Zey @ Feb 18th 2008 3:47PM
These types of cases seem to usually just end with a cross-licensing agreement. That is, Motorola gets to use the RIM patents in exchange for letting RIM use the Motorola patents.
If that fails, my bets are on RIM crushing Motorola.
philipbarrett @ Feb 18th 2008 6:31PM
Hey Motorola let's move these deckchairs...