Research In Motion Limited (RIM) has moved to sue Motorola Inc. over patent infringement related to wireless technology and anticompetitive conduct in royalty fees, the company announced. The Canadian BlackBerry-maker says that Motorola charges "exorbitant" licensing fees while refusing to acknowledge or pay royalties for certain patents held by RIM.

"Having suffered losses in the marketplace, Motorola has now resorted to demanding exorbitant royalties from its competitor, RIM, for patents that Motorola claims are essential to various standards for mobile wireless telecommunications," said Research In Motion Limited in its filing, as reproduced by MarketWatch. The suit was allegedly filed on Feb. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

More precisely, RIM says Motorola charges too much for a number of wireless technologies that have become industry standards. These include a technology that enables the use of Wi-Fi on a mobile device. At the same time, Motorola willfully infringed several of RIM's patents, according to the latter, including a patent for a mobile device "with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs."

"Motorola's strong R&D [research and development] and intellectual property are critical to our business. Motorola believes in the value of its IP and will move aggressively to protect that value on behalf of our customers, partners and shareholders," Motorola said in a statement.

This is quite expected of RIM, which made a history of suing over patents. It sued competitor Glenayre Electronics in 1999, startup Good Technology in 2002, Handspring over its Treo device later that year and Xerox in 2003.

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) has been founded by Mike Lazaridis, who currently serves as its co-CEO along with Jim Balsillie, in 1984. The company released its first BlackBerry handheld in 1999, which was based on the Inter@ctive Pager, introduced in 1995, its first successful product. The company now has about 6,000 employees.