Motorola announced Friday that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Research In Motion for patent infringement. Motorola alleges that five patents relating to Wi-Fi access, application management, user interface and power management are being used by RIM without its permission.
Jonathan Meyer, senior vice president of intellectual property law at Motorola, said, “Through its early-stage development of the cellular industry and billions of dollars spent on research and development, Motorola has created an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio that is respected by the entire telecommunications industry. In light of RIM’s continued unlicensed use of Motorola’s patents, RIM’s use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation, and RIM’s refusal to design out Motorola’s proprietary technology, Motorola had no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM’s continued infringement. Motorola will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its R&D and intellectual property, which are critical to the Company’s business.”
The two companies had a technology cross-licensing pact in place for a number of years but it expired in December 2007. They have since then been unable to reach an agreement to renew the agreement.
Motorola is asking the ITC to stop sales of the infringing products as well as stopping the marketing, advertising, demonstration of these products in the United States.