The flurry of legal wrangling in the wireless e-mail space continued as Visto Corp. filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against competitor Good Technology Inc. Meanwhile, Research In Motion Ltd. scored several patent wins.
In its lawsuit, Visto accused Good of violating four of its patents for synchronizing, managing and accessing mobile e-mail. The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based developer, which claims it has held the patents for nine years, is seeking a permanent injunction against the competing GoodLink service as well as unspecified monetary damages.
“Good Technology, like other late entrants to this market, has no patents directed to wireless e-mail and very clearly infringes on our long-held intellectual property,” Visto Chief Executive Officer Brian Bogosian said.
A representative from Good declined to comment until the company had a chance “to see and review this complaint.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, where Visto filed a similar lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. in December. Visto is also engaged in patent-infringement suits with competitor Seven Networks Inc. and its subsidiary Smartner Information Systems Ltd.
The latest filing comes as Good, Seven, Visto and a handful of others jockey to take advantage of a potential shutdown of RIM’s mobile e-mail service. The BlackBerry maker is facing an injunction in its high-profile battle with patent-holding company NTP Inc., and may be forced to shut down its service to U.S. subscribers.
Visto last month gave NTP an equity stake in exchange for licensing rights to NTP’s patents. NTP has also licensed its offerings to Good as well as to Nokia Corp., which recently paid $430 million to acquire wireless e-mail provider Intellisync Corp.
Meanwhile, RIM received good news on both sides of the Atlantic last week, scoring patent victories in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The BlackBerry maker said last Thursday that the English High Court invalidated all of the patent claims by Luxembourg-based InPro Licensing S.a.r.l.
The announcement came on the heels of last Monday’s news that a federal patent court in Germany also rejected all of InPro’s claims. InPro may appeal both decisions.
Perhaps more importantly for the Canadian developer, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued another “non-final” rejection of a patent at the heart of its fight with NTP. The USPTO has now issued preliminary rejections on all five patents in question, and has publicly stepped up its final review of the patents.
U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer has set a hearing for Feb. 24 to consider an injunction that could kill service to U.S. BlackBerry users. Such a move is highly unlikely given the BlackBerry’s ubiquity among U.S. executives and federal workers; in fact, the U.S. Department of Justice expressed concerns over a potential shutdown in a brief filed with the court.
While the most recent rejection may give RIM a modicum of leverage in court, it may not be enough to forestall the injunction. Spencer has publicly indicated he won’t wait for a final ruling by the patent office, noting NTP has two avenues to appeal the rejections.
The validity of the patents in question could take years to resolve, attorneys familiar with the case say. Although RIM is working to bide its time in court-in the hope the patent office comes to the rescue-analysts believe the company will be forced to settle to avoid a shutdown.
