Calgary, AB — The BlackBerry™ wireless solution from Research In Motion Limited (RIM) is the world's leading wireless enterprise solution for mobile professionals to stay continuously connected to their corporate e-mail while meeting the security and manageability requirements of IT departments.

Mike Lazaridis and Gary Mousseau, who are named on the "Single Mailbox Integration" patent that describes a key architectural element of BlackBerry, have won the Ernest C. Manning Award Foundation's top award for their patented and remarkable successful Canadian Innovation.

They will receive this year's $100,000 Preston Manning Principal Award, sponsored by TransAlta Corporation in honour of Preston Manning.

Since 1982, the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation's annual awards program has encouraged and recognized leading Canadian innovators with more than $2.9 million in prize money.

This year's recipients, who will be honoured at the annual gala dinner Oct. 4 in Ottawa, will share a total of $145,000.

Lazaridis and Mousseau, both alumni of the University of Waterloo, got the idea for the BlackBerry Single Mailbox Integration during a brainstorming session over five years ago.

"There was this great need to be connected to the office," says Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO of RIM. "Messaging and wireless technologies are a perfect marriage."

"The challenge for us was to develop a single mailbox solution that connected to corporate e-mail and was end-to-end secure," says Mousseau, RIM's Director of Wireless Innovation.

The BlackBerry Single Mailbox Integration patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,219,694) relates to the system and method pioneered and employed by RIM in redirecting messaging information between a host computer system (such as an office PC or server) and a mobile communications device (such as a wireless handheld) while maintaining a seemingly common electronic address between the host system and mobile device.

Using this patented technology, BlackBerry connects in an apparently seamless manner with a user's existing e-mail account providing a wireless extension of the user's regular e-mail box.

In developing BlackBerry, RIM's team overcame the mailbox integration problems. They also equipped a pager-sized wireless handheld with an embedded wireless modem, an Intel 386 microprocessor, and integrated software.

RIM innovators have continued to file a range of patents. Their portfolio includes a patent that covers the BlackBerry handheld's curved, "QWERTY" keyboard and trackwheel that enable people to easily use their thumbs to type.

RIM launched the BlackBerry as an end-to-end, integrated wireless solution in 1999.

"RIM's BlackBerry has become an invaluable tool for maintaining a strong relationship with our clients in a highly competitive industry," says Mary Odsen, Chief Information Officer for Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, an international law firm with more than 700 attorneys

BlackBerry now flourishes in over 14,000 organizations across North America and Europe and is taking root in Asia Pacific. BlackBerry accounted for a substantial portion of the US$71.6 million in revenue that RIM generated in the first quarter of the company's fiscal year 2003.

RIM, whose awards include being named Company of the Year by the Branham Group, now employees over 2,000 people — most of them in Canada.

Lazaridis and Mousseau plan to share their winnings with worthy causes that will encourage the development of innovative minds in Canada.

Lazaridis will replenish engineering and science books in public schools and libraries in Windsor, Ont., where he grew up.

Mousseau will contribute to organizations such as the Integrated Centre for Optimal Learning — an institute that works to enhance the learning success of children and adults.