BlackBerry Defeats NXP In Trial Over Patents

A federal jury in Florida on Monday ruled in favor of Blackberry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) in a lawsuit accusing the company of infringing three patents belonging to Dutch semiconductor company NXP BV.

NXP in April 2012 sued BlackBerry, then known as Research in Motion, alleging that versions of the BlackBerry phone and PlayBook tablet infringed patents related to the design, data transmission and other features of those devices.

The lawsuit originally covered six patents, but NXP later dropped its claims related to three of the patents. NXP sought unspecified damages, including triple damages.

Jurors needed less than a day of deliberations before ruling in BlackBerry's favor, in a trial that began on March 24, court records show.

NXP is listed on the Nasdaq as NXP Semiconductors NV. It did not immediately respond to requests for comment. BlackBerry did not immediately respond to similar requests.

Litigation remains a major weapon in a global patent war among makers of smartphones, tablet computers and operating software, including such companies as Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and Google Inc.

BlackBerry was once a dominant force in smartphones, but the Waterloo, Ontario-based company has lost much of its market share to Apple's iPhone and gadgets powered by Google's Android operating system.

NXP is based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and was spun off from Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV in 2006.

In Monday trading in Toronto, BlackBerry shares fell 15 cents to C$8.62. In Monday trading on the Nasdaq, BlackBerry shares fell 14 cents to $7.86.

The case is NXP BV v. Blackberry Ltd et al, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, No. 12-00498.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)