Judge Overturns Mformation Verdict, Saves Research In Motion $147 Million

Research In Motion RIMM is celebrating Thursday after announcing that the judge presiding over its patent infringement trial with Mformation Technologies has overturned the jury's verdict, saving RIM more than $100 million. In July, the BlackBerry maker was ordered to pay $147.2 million to Mformation Technologies. District Chief Judge James Ware of the San Francisco division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California overturned the July jury verdict as a matter of law. The judge granted RIM's motion and concluded that the evidence did not support the jury's verdict. The judge vacated the $147.2 million jury award, ruling that RIM did not infringe on Mformation's patents. Mformation's only recourse is to appeal the judge's ruling. If Mformation is successful, the first jury verdict would not be reinstated; instead the two parties would have to fight the battle all over again in a new trial. RIM's announcement comes at a time when the firm is struggling to maintain its position as one of the world's largest manufacturers of smartphones. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company incurred substantial losses after launching its first tablet, the PlayBook, which failed to capture a significant portion of the worldwide tablet market. On August 2, RIM announced its plans to release a 4G version of the PlayBook. Scheduled to go on sale August 9 in Canada, the new tablet comes equipped with 32GB of memory and will offer superior performance over the original device. The updated PlayBook may be the only major product RIM plans to release this quarter. In June, the company announced that it had delayed BlackBerry 10 -- the next-generation version of its mobile operating system -- until 2013. RIM shares have endured massive declines since February 2011, losing more than 80 percent of its value over the last 18 months. In April 2011, RBC Capital Markets, expected the company to soar. At the time, RBC had a $90 price target on RIM, which was trading above $50. Today, the stock trades below $8 a share, closing August 8 at $7.62. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ