RIM Facing New Patent Claim Over BlackBerry

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

19 September 2005

It emerged last week that Research in Motion (RIM), which manufactures BlackBerry wireless devices, is facing another patent battle.

Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc, a developer of predictive-text technology based in Manhattan, has sued the firm and T-Mobile to stop the manufacture and sale in the United States of RIM's 7100 series of devices.

Eatoni argued that it owns a fundamental patent on reduced keyboards and related technology which look, feel, and act like a full Qwerty keyboard, and which are used by BlackBerry devices.

In its court filings in the Northern District of Texas, Eatoni alleged that the RIM 7100 series of devices infringes its patent, and asked the court for a permanent injunction against the manufacture and sale of such devices.

However, in its court filings, RIM alleges that Eatoni patents are invalid, for a number of reasons, including lack of novelty.

Meanwhile, RIM remains embroiled in a separate patent dispute with NTP, with the latter asserting that the 'push e-mail system' contained in BlackBerry devices infringes on its patent.

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