RIM and the $450 million debarcle

The lawsuit against RIM could have been settled for a couple of million. Arrogance on the part of RIM founder and a failure to take the suit seriously allowed it to escalate to 450 million.

The other factor was fabricating evidence with a deceptive demonstration during the trial...

"It took the jury barely four hours to reach a verdict. They found not only that RIM had infringed on NTP's patents, but that its conduct had been “willful.” The court assessed damages of $23-million (U.S.) and a royalty based on the number of BlackBerrys RIM sold in the United States.

NTP applied to Judge Spencer to have the damages “enhanced,” in part because of RIM's actions during the trial. He agreed, citing the botched demonstration, calling it “fraudulent” and said RIM had “consistently engaged in a variety of questionable litigation tactics throughout the course of this action.”

The judge's ruling swelled the damages to $53-million plus about $4.5-million in legal fees. He also increased the royalty to 8.55 per cent.

Through arrogance, blunder and bad advice, RIM's potential bill had shot up from a few million dollars before the trial to roughly $20-million when its case headed south at trial, to now hundreds of millions of dollars." (Link)