Upholding Mformation Technologies' claims that Research In Motion (RIM) infringed its patents related to software which facilitates remote management of wireless devices, a federal jury in San Francisco found RIM liable for a $147.2-million payment in damages.

The Friday ruling by the eight-member jury came after a three-week trial and deliberations for seven days.

The penalty slapped on RIM was calculated at $8 for every Blackberry handset which has been in use since Mformation first filed for its lawsuit against RIM in 2008, accusing the BlackBerry-maker of infringing on software which enables companies to access employees' mobile handsets remotely for upgrades and password changes or for deletion of data.

According to Mformation attorney Amar Thakur, with the jury asking RIM to pay Mformation $8 for each of the 18.4 million BlackBerry devices which were connected to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server from the day of the filing of the lawsuit till the time of the trial, the total fine which RIM will have to pay works out to be $147.2 million.

Further revealing that the damages are linked only to royalties on the past sales of RIM devices in the US, and do not include either future sales or sales outside the US, Thakur said that Mformation is certain that the patents at dispute have been "fundamental to the success of Research in Motion."