RIM settles with Dolby over audio patents

SMARTPHONE MAKER Research in Motion (RIM) has signed a licensing deal with Dolby Laboratories and avoided costly litigation over patent infringement claims.

Dolby claimed that RIM was infringing on its audio compression patents by selling Blackberry smartphones and its Playbook tablet. Dolby claimed that RIM's devices used its audio compression technology without obtaining licences.

Dolby had filed lawsuits back in June in the US and Germany seeking financial damages for alleged past infringements and sales injunctions for both Blackberry smartphones and Playbook tablets. However the threat of Blackberrys disappearing from the shelves has dissipated after RIM signed a deal with Dolby to license its audio compression technologies.

In recent years Dolby has been developing various audio compression formats for smartphones and tablets, recognising the growing importance of audio in devices that are used to do far more than just make phone calls. However the fact that Dolby has made a patent stick on a fundamental feature of a smartphone - making phone calls - bodes well for the firm's balance sheet.

With RIM signing up, Dolby announced that the lawsuits have been dropped, though the firm did not go into any detail about the agreement. µ