Mformation Techs., Inc. v. Research in Motion Ltd., No. 12-1679 (Fed. Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseMST owns the rights to the 917 patent, which discloses the wireless activation and management of an electronic device without the need to have physical access to the device. The feature is useful because many businesses request that their employees use smartphones to store and transmit sensitive information. Should an employee lose a smartphone, the patent discloses a way to remotely delete sensitive data and methods to remotely deploy software updates and troubleshoot without the need for a constant connection or an initial activation. BlackBerry makes and sells handheld wireless devices and its BES software, which allows its corporate customers to deliver e-mail and other data to their employees’ BlackBerry devices. The BES software allows companies to remotely manage their employees’ devices. It is installed on a company server and communicates with a BlackBerry device by sending data in packets over the cheapest available network. After construing the “establishing a connection between the wireless device and the server” sub-step to mean “initiating wireless communication between a wireless device and the server” the district court held that Blackberry did not infringe the patent. The Federal Circuit affirmed; there was no legally sufficient evidentiary basis on which a reasonable jury could have found that BlackBerry infringes the asserted claims.
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