YOU I Labs is an Ontario-based company that helped HTC develop its very successful and popular HTC Sense user interface — which became a standard for the Taiwanese manufacturer’s Android smartphones after first iterations on Windows Mobile.

According to GigaOm’s sources, RIM was about to buy YOU I Labs — similar to how they’ve bought Swedish innovative UI developer TAT — but instead of a purchase the two companies seem to have an partnership agreement in place. YOU I Labs is developing user experience and interface technologies for mobile devices (and not only smartphones, with nearly 500 million devices running their software) and a partnership with RIM could definitely boost its BlackBerry smartphone line-up that would probably benefit of an innovative custom UI.

Source: GigaOm