RIM owes Mformation $147.2 million after court verdict on wireless patent lawsuit

RIM has definitely not had that the best year: Its stock has fallen nearly 70% this year and they postponed the launch of BlackBerry 10 until 2013. We even heard the other day that RIM was selling off one of its corporate jets to save money. Today, the verdict at a court in San Francisco has dug RIM into deeper financial difficulty.

Amar Thakur, attorney for Mformation, said that the Jury decided RIM should pay a royalty of $8 for every Blackberry device connected to enterprise server software.  This brings the total to $147.2  million. This verdict only covers US sales through trials, and not future or foreign damages according to Thakur. Crystal Roberts, a spokesperson for RIM, mentioned that the company  may have pending legal motions that could overturn the verdict.

If you are unfamiliar with Mformation, they help corporations manage their smartphone inventory and also help carriers like AT&T or Sprint with remote fixes and upgrades for devices. Mformation sued RIM back in 2008 for infringing on a patent on the ability to remotely manage a wireless device over a wireless network. We’ll keep you updated on the status of the court case.

Dakota Torres
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: patent infringement, RIM