Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) will license some of its keyboard patents to handheld device maker Handspring Inc., the companies announced Tuesday.
As part of the agreement, for which terms were not disclosed, RIM, based in Waterloo, Ont., will also dismiss its pending litigation against Handspring, of Mountain View, Calif., the companies said in a joint statement.
In early September, RIM filed a patent infringement suit against Handspring in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, claiming that the keyboard for Handspring’s Treo is “remarkably similar” to the BlackBerry keyboard by RIM.
Now that the lawsuit has been settled, Handspring can refocus its resources on “product innovation and expanding the market for our Treo communicators,” the company said.
RIM is on the Web at www.rim.com, and Handspring can be found at www.handspring.com.