Research in Motion's month gets worse as it faces Dolby lawsuit

More bad news for Research in Motion (RIM) after it emerged the group faces a lawsuit from Dolby, just days after its numbers disappointed the market.

RIM, which makes the BlackBerry smartphones, is facing a lawsuit from Dolby, which alleges that its devices use audio compression technology without the proper licenses.

The suit added that all the other major smartphone groups had licensed the technology. "Litigation was regrettably our last resort after RIM declined to pay for the use of Dolby's technology," Dolby's legal council said.

RIM's shares fell by nearly 14 per cent last week after its first-quarter numbers missed targets.

Its launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet also ran into problems in the UK when O2 said it would not sell the device over user issues.