The Register reports that, faced with an ongoing patent battle in the US that threatens to place injunctions on its products, RIM is focusing heavily on Europe and has launched a tri-band full colour BlackBerry PDA (personal digital assistant) this week -- only to find itself attacked by another intellectual property lawsuit, this time from a Luxembourg-based company. RIM and T-Mobile USA have been sued in Delaware by InPro II Licensing, a Luxembourg-based licensing company, which claims that the companies are infringing its patents. Inpro is seeking damages which are "in no event less than a reasonable royalty". RIM, which is appealing against an injunction granted to US intellectual property company NTP that could potentially ban it from selling its products, has filed a suit in federal court in Dallas asking for a ruling that the InPro patents are invalid. RIM said in a statement this week that InPro had shown "threatening and grasping behaviour". All the legal uncertainties surrounding RIM add to the problems facing all PDA makers in a declining market. One of the company's weaknesses has always been its lack of success in Europe, which it is aiming to reverse next year.
The IPKat has observed over the years that IP litigation in general, and patent litigation in particular, becomes more intensive in weakening markets. That's because, when a market is expanding rather than contracting, money that might be spent in litigation frequently attracts a better return when spent on marketing or new product development. But when the market diminishes, enforcing IP rights may be the only way to save a business from losing profitability or indeed going under.
How PDAs work
Other PDAs here, here and here
More on blackberries here, here and here
The IPKat has observed over the years that IP litigation in general, and patent litigation in particular, becomes more intensive in weakening markets. That's because, when a market is expanding rather than contracting, money that might be spent in litigation frequently attracts a better return when spent on marketing or new product development. But when the market diminishes, enforcing IP rights may be the only way to save a business from losing profitability or indeed going under.
How PDAs work
Other PDAs here, here and here
More on blackberries here, here and here
BLACKBERRY BLIGHT HITS RIM
![BLACKBERRY BLIGHT HITS RIM]()
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Rating:
Follow the IPKat on LinkedIn 
![[Guest post] Benelux Office rules on opposition proceedings prepared by ChatGPT](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi29VY0rNNP1Hqyz8RgB47r4q7fhqQfYHxsEbX_RKmT4KU5Y_vg7vB6dsAW91CidjMfJ38klTvD4mMtZb3QmwFPAHaGF88BPttWSbfYvo7UUg7MpFRTNtEjThmG0QaX2qZFFHSnN71i3YQZSBFC0SL7PgkAlme-XH8cSNWRFbOAOuLr_LMOGcImLQ/s72-c/Screenshot%202024-12-04%20at%2020.45.58.png)
Posts
No comments:
All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.
It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.
Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html