Defendant
1 case as defendant.
Research In Motion Limited (RIM) — now BlackBerry Limited — is a Canadian technology company founded in 1984 and headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario. It went public in 1997 (originally NASDAQ: RIMM; now NYSE/TSX: BB). Shareholders approved the name change from Research In Motion to BlackBerry in July 2013, so the entity named in the case data is the same legal company that litigates today as BlackBerry. It is an independent public company, not a subsidiary; recent disclosures put headcount in the low thousands after years of downsizing, a sharp reduction from its peak above 17,000 employees.
Operations. RIM built its business on the BlackBerry wireless handheld/pager and smartphone line plus the associated secure messaging network and enterprise server software. The company exited smartphone hardware (brand licensed to third parties; on-device software support ended in 2022) and now sells enterprise software: cybersecurity and endpoint protection (including technology from its 2019 Cylance acquisition), the QNX embedded real-time OS for automotive and industrial customers, and BlackBerry Radar asset-tracking. It also holds a substantial patent portfolio.
Litigation posture. The tracked data show a pure defendant: 0 plaintiff cases, 1 defendant case. That is consistent with an operating company being attacked rather than a patent monetization vehicle. The single matter, Innovative Display Technologies LLC v. Research in Motion Limited (No. 2:13-cv-00526), was filed 2013-06-28 in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division — a historically plaintiff-friendly venue.
Case context. The plaintiff, Innovative Display Technologies LLC, is a Texas-based non-practicing entity and a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation; it asserted seven "Light Emitting Panel Assemblies" patents (U.S. Nos. 6,755,547; 7,300,194; 7,384,177; 7,404,660; 7,434,974; 7,537,370; 8,215,816) covering LED backlight/display panel technology. RIM was sued alongside Dell, HP, Acer, Huawei and ZTE in a parallel campaign. Acacia later reported settling related Dell and HP suits; the outcome of RIM's specific case is not reflected in the tracked data. Note that BlackBerry's broader litigation history (e.g., the 2006 NTP settlement, the Visto dispute) is outside this database.
Patent infringement suit filed by Innovative Display Technologies LLC against Research in Motion Limited and others in the Eastern District of Texas. The case is part of the IDT campaign involving U.S. Patent 8,215,816 and related patents.