Motorola and Research In Motion exchanged three lawsuits over the weekend regarding a series of cross-licensing deals that never came to fruition. RIM filed a suit in Texas that claims Motorola is infringing on its patents and "is demanding exorbitant royalties." Meanwhile, Motorola filed two similar lawsuits: one in Texas and another in Delaware, which charge RIM with infringing its patents while challenging the validity of some of RIM's IP. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the patent dispute can trace its roots to a botched renewal of terms for a 2003 licensing pact.
In the fall of 2006 Motorola acquired push email software company Good Technology, which certainly heightened tensions between Motorola and RIM.
For more on the patent war:
- read this article [1] from the WSJ (sub. req.)
Links:
[1] http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/02/19/motorola-rim-spat-you-infringed-no-you-infringed/