Wireless device maker Research in Motion (Quote, Company Info) said demand for its e-mail device remains strong despite analysts' fears that a crucial patent loss could chase enterprise customers away.

The Canadian firm, which was slapped with a 53 million patent infringement judgment recently, said preliminary results show second quarter revenues will be in the range of $123 million to $126 million, much higher than original estimates of between $105 million and $115 million.

The company, which markets the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, said second quarter net income would also exceed initial forecasts.

Excluding the patent litigation provision, RIM expects adjusted diluted earnings to be between 7 cents and 11 cents per share.

More importantly, the company expects the number of net new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter to be between 94,000 and 97,000, much higher than earlier forecasts 80,000 to 90,000 for the second.

Immediately after the penalty phase of the patent infringement suit was filed against RIM by Virginia-based NTP Inc., analysts warned that the fallout from the legal loss would hurt RIM's push into the enterprise market. The judgment included a ruling that RIM must cease selling its flagship BlackBerry handheld devices in the U.S. -- its largest market.

The immediate impact of the ruling was stayed to allow RIM to file an appeal but Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg reckoned that fear and uncertainty would hit the company hard. "This is not good news for RIM as the U.S. is their largest market. Even though the judge did not execute the injunction effective immediately, the fear and uncertainty will likely have many corporate users looking to competitive solutions," Gartenberg said.

When final second quarter results are reported on September 25th, RIM expects the BlackBerry subscriber base to be in excess of 700,000.