RIM and Kodak tussle over patents - Dallas Business Journal:

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The company in November settled one local patentcourtt fight, and in the same montj sought a judicial declaration that it was not infringing on anothetr firm’s intellectual property. The Canadiabn maker of the ubiquitous BlackBerry smart phone recently agree to settle a court tussle with a British Virgi n Islands company calledBVI Ltd. Termsz weren’t disclosed.DataQuill’s Web site says it holdxs intellectual property relating to the exchange and downloadinyg of information over wirelesstelecommunications networks. In a 2007 complaintg in federal district courtin Dallas, Research in Motion — whose U.S.
headquarters is in Las Colinase and which goes by RIM forshorgt — did the legal equivalentg of a pre-emptive strike, seeking a judgment that it did not infringre on two DataQuill patents, one related to a specific data entry the other entitled “Handx Held Telecommunications and Data Entry Device.” DataQuill maintainer that RIM did infringe the patents, court recordsz say. DataQuill lawyers in Chicago couldn’r be reached for comment. RIM also declined commentt viaa spokeswoman.
In a similar vein, RIM is seekint a judgment that three of its smart phones do not infringer on four patents held by the Accordingt tocourt documents, Kodak sent a letter to RIM in Augusyt 2007 claiming infringements by three RIM product the BlackBerry 8700 and 8800 seriex and the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 series. RIM’s litigatiojn notes that Kodak has sued three companies in the federal Easterm District of Texas over allegations of infringement of two of the patentd at issue in its disputewith RIM. The defendants, who have denied wrongdoing, are , Panasonic Corp. JVC and Victor Co.
of In an e-mail, A Kodak David Lanzillo, says the company is “disappointede that RIM has chosen to end discussions that appearefd to be on a reasonable path The Kodak patents targetef by RIM are valid andenforceable ... (W)e are committeds to protecting these assets on behalf of our After receiving the letter from Kodak aboutt theinfringement allegations, courr records say, there were five meeting s between officials of RIM and Kodak to discuss Kodak’s At least one of those gatherings occurred at RIM’d offices in Las Colinas.
“At these Kodak demanded exhorbitant royalties from RIM for thisalleged RIM’s court petition William Munck, chairman of the Dallas-based law firm Munckm Carter, notes that by having a meeting in Las Colina s about the patents, RIM can now argue that the case should be trie d in Dallas, in the Northern District of rather than in some other locale where it doesn’t want to go. The Eastern District of Texas is knownas “rockett docket” for its ability to try patent cases quickly, althougj a flood of litigation beinf tried there has slowed the pace somewhat, Munck “It’s clear that (RIM) perceives they have an advantage here (in the Norther District), for whatever their reasons are,” Munck