Research in Motion (RIM) is a designer, and manufacturer of BlackBerry wireless and e-mail services for the worldwide mobile communications market. RIM was founded in 1984 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. With the development of integrated hardware, software and services, it provides platforms and solutions for all-in-one access to information, including e-mail, voice, browsing, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications. It’s selection of products, services, and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations and millions of consumers around the world including the BlackBerry wireless solution, and the RIM Wireless handheld product line. RIM is also known as the inventor of the smartphones for business and government corporations. Some of the challenges that RIM face included Glenayre Technologies Inc. In August of 1991 Glenayre Technologies Inc. filed a patent infringement suit against RIM, regarding a patented process involving power generation from a dual battery source. Protecting intellectual property is one of the major security concerns of a company. There are many ways to implement the policy like blocking video camera of employee’s phones and ask them to register their phones. To be able to protect its intellectual property, RIM records all employee conversations using its domain. According to Robin Beinfait, former Chief Information Officer, RIM employees allow using the company beta devices as testers and users. However, all communication within RIM network are logged and kept track. In case of breaching and leaking information, the company will wipe out immediately all information the device carrying and make it as a piece of hardware. Employees are aware of the surveillance and fully cooperate with the policy. (Tindal, 2009)

RIM provides service of protecting its intellectual property when customers lose their devices. RIM implements programs that can locate devices by showing current location of devices. The service provides customers make devices ring even if it is in silent mode. In addition, customers can remotely control the devices by locking it, changing password, popping up a message of how to return devices, and even wiping out customers information data. (BlackBerry, 2013)
In 1991, 164 306 patent applications were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). One was filed by Thomas Campana Jr. It, and the additional patents he ultimately received, would threaten the wireless e-mail industry eleven years later, when the BlackBerry system would be found to infringe Campana's patents. (Teska, 2006).
Apart from the monetary damages, ultimately totaling $53.7 million, the biggest threat to RIM was an injunction, which could essentially shut down the BlackBerry system. To stave off that possibility, the company filed requests with the PTO for reexamination of the patents, moved for a new trial, filed an appeal, and moved to stay all court proceedings pending the reexamination. The odds were good (90 percent) that the Patent Office would take a second look but poor (12 percent) that it would strike all the claims. (Teska, 2006). RIM also implements guidelines of how to use its intellectual property, example includes: trademark, logos, images, partner guidelines, and alliance programs. The entrance of smartphones in the wireless market, like Android and Microsoft’s window platform greatly affects RIM intellectual property. BlackBerry was the leading smartphone in many markets, especially in the United States where businesses and government were BlackBerry major customers.
However, in recent years, RIM has been facing stiff competitions from Apple iPhone, smartphones running Android, and Microsoft’s window phone platform. The competition hugely affects the company.
Many manufacturing companies including Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, LG, and Motorola have come up against RIM. The team-up causes a great falling number of users using RIM. In early 2012, there were barely 3 million users using Android smartphones. One year later, in 2013, the Android user rockets to 67.68 million users worldwide while RIM users are about 7 millions. (Wikipedia, 2013)
BlackBerry is well known smartphones provider for business and government. Data encryption of Blackberry is the main reason RIM is having those big markets. BlackBerry also provides protective service for customers in case of losing devices. BlackBerry services could be considered as a protecting innovation. (Terminal Course Objective (TCO): B given a company situation be able to determine whether and how to protect its technology.) Enhancing new wireless technology is the primary function of BlackBerry. In early days of its history, BlackBerry brought in a new wave of smartphones. BlackBerry was one of the first providers of email and texting services. BlackBerry keyboard was an innovation of technology. It was believed that QWERTY keyboard was first introduced by BlackBerry. (TCO: A Given a company situation be able to describe the industry dynamics of technological innovations)

References

BlackBerry Ltd . Wikipedia.com. Retrieved May 23, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Ltd 4. Tindal S. (2009, March)

BlackBerry Protect User Guide . BlackBerry.com. Retrieved May 24, 2014, from https://protect.blackberry.com/protect/help/en/ .

Pepitone J. (2011, October) BlackBerry Service Restored After Worse Outage Ever. CNN Money tech Retrieved May 20, 2014, from http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/13/technology/blackberry_outage/

Teska K. (2006, March). The Story Behind the BlackBerry Case. Spectrum. ieee.org. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/the-story-behind-the-blackberry-case. Regan K. (2006, March). With NTP Settlement Done, RIM Turns to Face Tougher Competition. E-Commerce Times. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/49197.html

RIM records employee calls to Protect IP. News.cnet.com. Retrieved May 23, 2014, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10187975-94.html .