Visto sues Microsoft

The flurry of controversy in the mobile e-mail sector is continuing as Visto Corp. announced this morning it has filed a legal action against Microsoft for "misappropriating Visto’s intellectual property," according to a statement from Visto.

Specifically Visto is claiming Microsoft’s recently launched Windows Mobile 5.0 e-mail and messaging platform clearly infringes on three long-standing patents related to synchronization, remote access and security that Visto developed to support its own push-email and enterprise data applications. Visto Chairman and CEO Brian Bogosian said Visto would seek an injunction against Microsoft to stop using its technology and also seek unnamed monetary damages. His remarks at a media conference this afternoon didn’t end with legalese, though. Bogosian ripped into Microsoft, accusing it of anti-competitive practices and using its weight to try to crush small companies and swipe their technology.

“They claim [Windows 5.0] is an innovation,” Bogosian said. “It is not. It’s a misappropriation of Visto’s intellectual property--nothing more.”

A Microsoft spokesman said the software giant had not yet received notice of the lawsuit, but the company issued a statement saying it does not engage in patent infringement on any level.

“Until we have an opportunity to review this complaint and investigate Visto’s allegations, we're not in a position to comment specifically on them,” the statement said. “In the meantime, however, we wish to underscore that Microsoft stands behind its products and respects the intellectual property rights of others.”

The filing comes just two weeks after a federal court judge ruled in favor of technology developer NTP in a patent infringement case the company had filed against push e-mail market leader Research In Motion. Prior to the ruling, RIM had been seeking to settle that lawsuit. Visto announced separately today it had signed a patent licensing agreement with NTP and that NTP would be taking an equity stake in Visto.

Bogosian acknowledged that the agreement with NTP was struck in part to head off any possible litigation between the two companies over NTP’s intellectual property. Though Bogosian didn’t go as far to say Visto may have been infringing on NTP’s patent before the deal was struck, he said that even the question of infringement could have hurt Visto’s business. The visibility of NTP’s case against RIM would have been very disruptive to Visto’s own sales efforts and raised concerns with its carrier customers, Bogosian said.

Though Visto didn’t reveal what damages it was seeking, the money at stake is potentially huge. NTP’s initial settlement with RIM was at $450 million dollars before the deal fell apart and the two continued to battle in court. The e-mail market is also moving out of its niche in the enterprise sector into the mass marketplace, making e-mail a huge-grossing application. According to an October survey conducted by mobile research firm M:Metrics, 13 million people, or 7% of all mobile subscribers in the U.S., used mobile e-mail for work or personal use that month. The survey also found that mobile e-mail’s growth is coming from the youth market: an 18 to 24 year-old is 64% more likely to use e-mail than the average subscriber.

Visto’s legal wrath isn’t just reserved for Microsoft. In April, Visto sued rival Seven for infringement of four patents, one of which is also named in the Microsoft case. Visto also implied that lawsuits against other e-mail developers may be on the horizon. While Bogosian said there were no immediate plans for legal action against other competitors, he claimed that Visto developed 10 years ago most of what now constitutes the technology of remote e-mail access, giving it cause for possible future lawsuits.

In an odd twist, Visto initially was one of the first companies to hail the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile in May, saying the new platform would enhance the reach of its own e-mail solution. A Visto spokeswoman, however, said that at the time, Microsoft had not released the details of its messaging solution, which is where Visto alleges the patent infringement occurred.