Court sides with Good against RIM

A California judge has denied a request from Research In Motion for a temporary restraining order against rival Good Technology, which makes software that runs on RIM's BlackBerry devices.

RIM sued Good in June for patent infringement and followed up with additional claims in July and September, alleging copyright and trademark infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract and other actions.

Good said Wednesday that Orange County Superior Court Judge Raymond J. Ikola denied RIM's request. The company gave no other information about the ruling. According to RIM, the court did grant its request to shorten the pretrial discovery period. Good Technology spokeswoman Andrea Cook Fleming said both companies had agreed the discovery period be reduced.

Good's GoodLink wireless corporate messaging system, released in May, runs on RIM hardware. The company said Wednesday that almost 400 companies have signed up for the service.

According to RIM, Good is required to respond by 4 November to RIM's allegations that Good violated confidential, proprietary and trade secret information.

"The ironic outcome of RIM's unfortunate legal tactics has been enhanced visibility of Good's highly differentiated products among potential customers," Good Technology chief executive Danny Shader said in a release.

Good's Fleming said the company expects a long legal process but that the lawsuits have not distracted it from continuing its business.

"Our strategy has always been to be a multidevice, multiplatform provider. That is what customers want," Fleming said. "Customers want open choice, and they don't want to be locked into one device."

Good has been working to make its software compatible with operating systems designed for other devices, including the Palm OS and Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002. Good announced an alliance with PalmSource on 25 September and sources say the company is working with Microsoft.

RIM has been prone to file lawsuits in regards to its technology. In September, it filed a suit against handheld maker Handspring, alleging that the company's Treo organisers infringe on a RIM patent. In February, RIM settled an earlier suit against pager company Glenayre Technologies.

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It looks like Research In Motion's aggressive stance towards business partner and software maker Good Technology isn't going to work this time