Motorola Files Trade Complaint Against RIMMotorola Files Trade Complaint Against RIM

Motorola has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, accusing rival Research In Motion of unfair trade practices.

Motorola claims the Canadian company and maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is selling products that infringe on five Motorola patents. The complaint, announced Friday, is the latest round in a two-year legal dispute.

The patents listed in the ITC action are related to several key technology areas, such as Wi-Fi access, application management, user interface, and power management. Motorola asserts that the technologies are important to the company competititvely, because they provide more comprehensive connectivity, a better user experience and lower product costs.

Motorola wants the ITC to issue an "exclusion order," prohibiting RIM from further sales of products Motorola claims are infringing on its patents and halting the marketing, advertising, demonstration and warehousing of such products for distribution in the United States.

"In light of RIM's continued unlicensed use of Motorola's patents, RIM's use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation, and RIM's refusal to design out Motorola's proprietary technology, Motorola had no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM's continued infringement," Jonathan Meyer, senior VP of intellectual property law of Motorola, said in a statement.

RIM, which has denied infringing on Motorola patents, started the legal battle when it filed a federal patent-infringement suit against Motorola in February 2008. Motorola, in turn, filed two suits against RIM.

The two companies had a cross-licensing agreement in place that expired in 2003, and they haven't been able to negotiate a renewal.