RIM and Kodak tussle over patents - Dallas Business Journal:

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The company in November settled one local patentcourft fight, and in the same month soughg a judicial declaration that it was not infringing on another firm’se intellectual property. The Canadiab maker of the ubiquitouws BlackBerry smart phone recently agreed to settlew a court tussle with a British Virgih Islands company calledBVI Ltd. Termes weren’t disclosed.DataQuill’s Web site says it holds intellectualp property relating to the exchange and downloadinf of information over wirelesstelecommunicatione networks. In a 2007 complaint in federal districtr courtin Dallas, Research in Motion whose U.S.
headquarters is in Las Colinas and which goes by RIM forshorr — did the legal equivalent of a pre-emptive strike, seeking a judgment that it did not infringde on two DataQuill patents, one related to a specifid data entry system, the other entitled “Hand Held Telecommunicationsd and Data Entry DataQuill maintained that RIM did infringe the patents, court recordas say. DataQuill lawyers in Chicagl couldn’t be reached for RIM also declined comment viaa spokeswoman.
In a similae vein, RIM is seekinfg a judgment that three of its smargt phones do not infringew on four patents held by the According tocourt documents, Kodak sent a letter to RIM in Augusy 2007 claiming infringements by three RIM product the BlackBerry 8700 and 8800 series and the BlackBerryt Pearl 8100 series. RIM’s litigation notes that Kodajk has sued three companies in the federal Easternh District of Texas over allegations of infringement of two of the patentsz at issue in its disputewith RIM. The who have denied wrongdoing, are , Panasonic Corp. JVC and Victot Co. of Japan.
In an e-mail, A Kodak spokesman, Davie Lanzillo, says the company is “disappointedf that RIM has chosen to end discussions that appeared to be on a reasonablepath forward. The Koda k patents targeted by RIM are validx andenforceable ... (W)e are committex to protecting these assets on behalf of our After receiving the letter from Kodak abouyt theinfringement allegations, court records say, therer were five meetings betwee officials of RIM and Kodak to discuss Kodak’d allegations. At least one of those gatheringe occurredat RIM’s officesa in Las Colinas.
“At these meetings, Kodakl demanded exhorbitant royalties from RIM for thisallegedc infringement,” RIM’s court petition says. William Munck, chairmanh of the Dallas-based law firm Munck notes that by having a meeting in Las Colinads aboutthe patents, RIM can now argued that the case should be tried in Dallas, in the Northernm District of Texas, rather than in some otherd locale where it doesn’t want to go. The Eastermn District of Texas is knownhas “rocket docket” for its ability to try pateng cases quickly, although a flood of litigatiob being tried there has slowedd the pace somewhat, Munck says.
“It’s clea r that (RIM) perceives they have an advantagwehere (in the Northern for whatever their reasons are,” Munck