Motorola seeks ban on US BlackBerries

Motorola is hoping to convince US trade regulators to ban the sale and import of certain BlackBerry phones, which it claims infringe on several patents. The handset maker said Friday it has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), asking for an investigation into RIM's alleged unlicensed use of five …

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, Motorola still exist?

Title says it all... but do they actually make phones still, or just sue those who do?

Not that it bothers me, still scarred from a StarTAC years ago- lovely hardware, worst interface I have ever seen (do I want paw print, tent or tree? help!), and thus simply can't go near the damn things without a relapse :)

[Antidisestablishmentarianist]

Must be the season

for all these phone companies to sue and counter sue each other. Hopefully in all cases it's to the death...

[JaitcH]

Sales are falling, so lets sue!

Funny how so many companies when they are failing resort to the courts to rebuild their fortunes.

Software shouldn't be patentable ... it's out of date so quickly, anyway.

[James O'Brien]

................SAY WHAT??

"Motorola said it doesn't have a "non-confidential version" of the complaint to share with us, but elaborated that the dispute concerns US patents 5,569,550 (a battery pack with under-voltage and over-voltage protection); "

Umm TBH isnt this covered under previous examples? WTF do they expect to accomp.....oh ait the lawsuit is in Texas...what a surprise.

"5,319,712 (method for providing cryptographic protection of data in a communication system); "

Umm previous art by the military? Maybe? And es I know they had alot of MotoTroll radios but FFS, who else BUT the military would want encryption right away?

"5,359,317 (a method for storing a received messages on a phone);"

Flash memory? Maybe?

"6,232,970 (a user interface design for small handheld devices"

Prior art = A KEYPAD

"6,272,333 (a way to control how Wi-Fi data is delivered to a device)."

Umm wirelessly? Maybe? Thought a cell network? Doubt that hasnt been thought of before their patents.

Im glas I got rid of the mindset that MotoTrolls devices where the best. F'em

[strangefish]

waaaaah

US patent law seems to have devolved into the equivalent of five year olds in the playground..."Miss! Miss! He took my ball...Well he borrowed my borrowed my pens and never give them back yet"...can't these sort of disputes be settled with some sort of Fight Club where they send someone a bit tasty round to just duke it out?

[Ihre Papiere Bitte!!]

Fight Clubs? Seconded.

"can't these sort of disputes be settled with some sort of Fight Club where they send someone a bit tasty round to just duke it out?"

They are only allowed to send their someone from Director level or above. The challenged party decides on who they're sending, and the challenger has to match their position (e.g. CEO for CEO, Marketing Director for the same).

That should make things interesting. The winner walks (or limps, crawls) away with pride and the Pay-per-view purse - can you imagine a Microsoft (Ballmer) vs Apple (Jobs) vs Google (Schmidt) vs Yahoo! (Yang) 4-way lawsuit?? I'd pay to watch it. And my money's on Ballmer if chairs are allowed in the ring.

[lpopman]

Sssshhhhhh!

Remember the first rule of Patent Law......

Do not talk about Patent Law

[Neur0mancer]

Oh Dear

If you can't innovate, litigate

[Aaron Em]

Why are they bothering?

The last time somebody sued RIM, the US Department of Justice stepped in and said no, you can't have an injunction to stop them doing anything they're currently doing, we rely on them too much. Why expect it to go differently now?

[James 47]

I love it

Again, the 'if you can't innovate, litigate' line. Ha ha, how many people commenting on here have ever filed a patent?

When Apple sued Pystar was it because Apple was lacking in the innovation stakes?

Nah

[Jenostinko]

uhh

RIM..jaw