1. What were some of the challenges that RIM faced to protect its intellectual property, and how did RIM handle those challenges? The following are two challenges that RIM had to face and how they handled those challenges: a. Employees at RIM: If you are an RIM employee with a company Blackberry, everything you say and do with that phone is property of RIM. According to Tindal (2009), employees at RIM are aware that the purpose of having a business phone is to conduct business; therefore, anything that is said or done on the company phone is recorded and considered property of RIM. Robin Bienfait, CIO, states if you want to have a private conversation, it is recommended that employees carry their own personal phone. b. RIM vs. NTP: This was a unique situation for RIM that could have been avoided had RIM licensed and patented their property early on when company was relatively new. According to Hickey (2006), in November 2001, NTP Inc. filed a patent infringement suit against RIM in federal court. In November 2002, a Federal jury sided with NTP and awarded NTP $23.1 million in damages against RIM. The damages represented 5.7% of RIM’s sales. In May 2003, the U.S. District Court raised the royalty rate from 5.7% to 8.55% of RIM’s sales and also issued an injunction that could shut down Blackberry in the United States. RIM responded by appealing the decision. Unfortunately for RIM, the Appeals Court sided with NTP. Since RIM was not willing to take a chance, in March 2006, RIM eventually settled with NTP in the amount of $612.5 million in order for RIM to use those patents. The condition of the settlement is that RIM could no longer be sued for violation of patent infringement and NTP could no longer profit off of RIM. The irony is all of this could have been avoided had RIM licensed those patents in 2000 when Blackberry was relatively new