The latest company to sue Research In Motion is the Ottawa-based patent firm Wi-LAN. The suit, filed in a U.S. district court in Florida, claims that RIM is infringing on two patents belonging to Wi-LAN — U.S. Patent No. 5,515,369 and U.S. Patent No. 6,232,969.
Wi-LAN says the first patent they allege RIM is infringing relates to the way BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook use Bluetooth, a means of short-distance data transmission between devices. Allegedly, 60 models of RIM devices infringe on that patent. The second patent infringement relates to “sym” key found on several of the newer BlackBerry models.
While not mentioning a fixed amount, Wi-LAN says they’ve been “irreparably harmed and monetarily harmed”. If RIM is found to have willfully infringed on the patents, Wi-LAN says they should pay triple the damages.
via Globe & Mail
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actually they are suing every manufacturer using BT. isn’s BT patented by Nokia, BTW?
Patent 6,232,969 Device for composing or editing a string of characters
OH YEAH!? how dare RIM use the SYM key to compose and edit a string of characters. good on you Wi-lan for patenting such an important software idea!