Canada's Research in Motion (RIM), maker of BlackBerry, announced it has been sentenced by a California court to pay 147.2 million dollars in costs and damages for violation of a license relating to the remote control of mobile phones.

RIM expressed its "disappointment" with the ruling and announced it was studying "the possible legal avenues" to take in the case.

In 2008, Mformation, a software company based in New Jersey, complained to RIM in a San Francisco court on the basis that in the course of trade negotiations with RIM it had discovered technological secrets.

However, having rejected the possibility of allying with Mformation, RIM modified some of its software to include in them a system patented by it.

RIM denied committing any fraud. "RIM struggled for many years to develop the independently innovative technology of the Blackberry and does not believe the license in question by Mformation to be valid," said the Canadian firm.

The trial judge must still rule on "some points at the legal level that could have influence over the ruling," the company said, noting it would wait to get these details to decide whether to appeal the decision on Saturday.

The RIM group went through a dark period after suffering a loss of $500 million in the first quarter, and announced the dismissal of five thousand people (30% of its workforce) by the end of 2013.

RIM's action, which was trading at C $145.50 in June 2008, lost 95% of its value since and early this week stood at less than eight dollars.