Intellectual property has been described like “personal identity” that needs to be protected at all costs; if left unprotected the owner of that property is subject to financial losses/ruin or even lawsuits. As was the case of Research in Motion, the company had to fight for its survival in an effort to protect its intellectual property as well as for its survival
Challenges that RIM faced in protecting its intellectual property, and how it handled those challenges
RIM is a company that has embraced technological innovation and its success has been a result of their key developments as taken from fundinguniverse.com that listed the key developments of RIM as follows:
“Key Dates:
1984: Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) is founded by Mike Lazardis.
1988: RIM begins working on wireless data-only applications.
1996: RIM develops a PCMIA plug-in card for computer-enabled wireless e-mail.
1997: RIM goes public and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
1999: RIM introduces the BlackBerry personal digital assistant (PDA); Lazardis and a RIM coworker receive an Academy Award for technical achievement.
2000: The popular BlackBerry is named Product of the Year by InfoWorld; RIM launches its Wireless Handheld product line.
2002: RIM introduces the BlackBerry 5810, which incorporates cell phone service.”
With the advent of RIM’s BlackBerry’s email service this let to a four year patent battle between RIM and NTP. This disagreement nearly caused an end of service to their email service to their US customers. In an effort to protect their intellectual property, in 2006 RIM had to settle the fight by paying NTP $612.5 million in exchange of NTP’s rights to its patents going toward. According to the Datamonitor’s publication dated 27 August for RIM’s swot analysis it stated that RIM continues to have intellectual property battles. In 2009 RIM settled with Motorola as well as Visto to enable it to access to “perpetual and fully paid license of certain
References: DATAMONITOR: Research In Motion Limited. (2010). Research In Motion Limited SWOT Analysis, 1-10. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Schilling, Melissa A, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, 3rd edition http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Research-in-Motion-Ltd-Company-History.html