TORONTO |
TORONTO (Reuters) – A U.S. decider has overturned a $147.2 million jury endowment opposite Research in Motion Ltd, statute that a BlackBerry builder has not infringed a Mformation Technologies Inc obvious covering a remote government complement for wireless devices.
Wednesday’s ruling, summarized in justice documents, gives RIM a most indispensable postpone as it battles to preserve money and spin around a fast-fading fortunes. More nimble competitors have outgunned RIM in new months, luring divided many long-time BlackBerry users.
Crucially for RIM, U.S. District Chief Judge James Ware also postulated RIM’s suit seeking a new hearing if a aloft justice overturns his ruling. This means that a jury endowment can't be backed should Mformation successfully interest a new ruling.
RIM, whose share cost has depressed over 70 percent this year as a inclination have ceded belligerent to a new stand of smartphones like Apple Inc’s iPhone and a operation of inclination that run on Google Inc’s Android software, cheered a ruling.
“We conclude a judge’s clever care of this case. RIM did not transgress on Mformation’s obvious and we are gratified with this victory,” pronounced RIM’s Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein in a matter on Thursday.
Mformation, that helps companies conduct their smartphone inventory, pronounced it is assessing a authorised options and will establish a subsequent stairs shortly.
“Mformation is deeply unhappy that a justice would overturn a jury outcome after a month of hearing including a week of courteous concern by a jury,” Chief Executive Todd DeLaughter pronounced in an email.
RIM shares rose some-more than 5 percent early on Thursday to $8.03 on a Nasdaq, though pared gains after in a day and were adult 1.1 percent during $7.70 during 1500 ET. Its Toronto-listed shares were adult 1.6 percent during C$7.68.
Mformation sued RIM in 2008 and a jury hearing began in June. The jury ruled final month that RIM had infringed a Mformation obvious and awarded a New Jersey-based association $147.2 million in damages.
Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM argued that a jury did not have sufficient justification to strech this outcome and sought to have it overturned by a judge, who was overseeing a trial.
“The justice finds that there was no ‘legally sufficient evidentiary basis’ on that a reasonable jury could have found for Mformation on a emanate of infringement,” pronounced Judge Ware in his ruling.
RIM is no foreigner to obvious lawsuit – it was roughly crippled by a five-year obvious quarrel with NTP that began in 2001 and during one indicate threatened to close down RIM’s U.S. operations. RIM eventually paid out some-more than $600 million to NTP Inc, a obvious holding company, to settle that case.
RIM pronounced a brawl with Mformation highlights a need for reforms to obvious laws.
“The purpose of a obvious complement is to inspire innovation, though a complement is still too mostly exploited in office of other goals,” pronounced Zipperstein.
The box in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Mformation Technologies Inc vs. Research in Motion Ltd et al., 5:08-cv-04990.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha in Toronto and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Mark Potter and Janet Guttsman)
Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/09/us-rim-patentverdict-idUSBRE87808Y20120809