RIM Sued Over BlackBerry Bluetooth Technology

By Zak Islam
published

Claims relate to BlackBerry Bold, Torch, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, among other RIM products.

WiLAN, which receives its revenue from licensing patents to vendors, has targeted RIM over Bluetooth technology used in its mobile devices. The company confirmed that it filed a patent infringement claim against RIM in the Southern District of Florida. It stated that the Blackberry maker is violating Patent No. 6,260,168 relating to Bluetooth technologies.

WiLAN alleges that the BlackBerry creator's violations applies to a number of products, including the BlackBerry Bold and Torch, as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Last year, WiLAN carried out several lawsuits against Apple, HP, Dell, among others over alleged violation of patents pertaining to CDMA, HSPA, Wi-Fi and LTE.

Founded in 1992, WiLAN describes itself as a "leading technology innovation and licensing company." It licenses its intellectual property to over 260 companies that offer "3G and 4G handsets, Wi-Fi enabled laptops," as well as "Wi-Fi and broadband routers." Ultimately, WiLAN has over 3,000 issued or pending patents.

RIM was recently ordered to agree a royalty deal with Nokia over the use of WiFi-related patents, with the former prevented from lodging an appeal.

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Zak Islam
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ttcboy
    WiLAN describes itself as a "leading technology innovation and licensing company."

    This kind of company that doesn't produce anything and making business by buying patents and licensing should burn in hell for eternity.
    Reply
  • excella1221
    Lol, this is the last thing a dying company needs.
    Reply
  • redeye
    why florida?... if this was real, how about taking RIM to court in canada, more specifically waterloo... I would assume that they also patented these patents in Canada also?... and why not in germany?... or UK? apple seems to lose there LOL. so they should have a good chance there too? right.



    Seriously... RIM got shafted by NTP... for 673 million i think, so watch out WiLAN (wireless-idiot-Local-Area-Network).

    I wonder if WiLAN or (why-LAN) uses Blackberry phones? (...sarcasm....RIM engineers were overheard saying "strangest thing ...a local network outage specific only to one companies phones"...but it is impossible... we will get right on that /sarcasm) and also iPhone engineers, andriod engineers, samsung engineers, nokia engineers, and cell phones network engineers and Lamented the fact WiLAN is have serious problems with there cell phones.../ joke (if only...) ...end of sarcasm ....


    BTW their patent puts the idiot in BLUETOOTH LOL.

    Reply
  • icemunk
    ttcboyThis kind of company that doesn't produce anything and making business by buying patents and licensing should burn in hell for eternity.
    It's a lawyer welfare company. Leeching money from the working man, while doing nothing helpful for society.
    Reply
  • kelemvor33
    Has WiLAN ever actually created anything? If not, all their patents should be thrown in the trash. When will someone wake up and figure out our patent system is so completely broken it needs to be thrown away and started over.
    Reply
  • anononon
    WiLAN are your everyday patent trolls... They are going after a Apple and HTC for the samething.. These guys should either be bought out or just thrown out.
    Reply