Visto wins Seven lawsuit, goes after RIM

Visto has won its federal lawsuit against fellow mobile e-mail firm Seven and immediately turned its legal offense against the sector giant Research in Motion. Visto said it filed a patent infringement lawsuit again RIM on Friday, adding RIM to the growing list of e-mail software developers Visto is targeting.

Though the award was small, only $3.6 million, a Houston jury set a royalty equivalent of 19.75% on all products drawing technology from three patents, setting a precedent for potential huge windfalls for Visto if it wins cases against larger companies like Microsoft and RIM. “The royalty rate reflects the tremendous value of Visto’s patents in the mobile space,” Visto CEO Brian Bogosian said. The case against RIM involves the same three patents as well as a new one and the same claims of infringement, Bogosian added, so Visto expects as similar verdict in the RIM lawsuit.

Visto has filed lawsuits against Good Technology, Microsoft, RIM and Seven. Of those companies, RIM is the market leader, though after its protracted legal battle with NTP, RIM saw its market share threatened and several large accounts flee to competitors. Visto has protected itself from a similar legal fight with NTP by signing a licensing agreement with NTP.

The Seven verdict effects its server, enterprise and consumer e-mail products. Though Visto characterized Friday’s judgment as a sweeping decision, Seven today pointed out that Visto originally made 200 claims of patent infringement against Seven on six patents and asked for $12 million from the court. Only five claims on three patents were upheld, and in separate proceedings with the U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Office two of those claims have been rejected, which could effect the final verdict.

"We are clearly disappointed with the verdict; however, we are grateful for the limited nature of the damages and look forward to the next phase of the litigation and the outcome of the PTO's re-examination proceedings,” Seven senior vice president and general counsel Harvey Anderson said in a statement issued on Friday. “While this is the first step in a long process, our primary objective is to protect the interests of our customers and their ability to continue to use Seven's innovative real-time mobile e-mail solution. We believe minor alterations of the software will avoid the claims in the future, with no disruption to our customers or the user experience."

Bogosian, however, said one key patent re-examined by the Patent Office was upheld, making its patent case against RIM and other companies stronger. Though RIM did eventually settled with NTP for $612.5 million, Bogosian said Visto expects RIM to fight the Visto lawsuit with the same intensity it fought NTP.

“We expect a protracted battle,” Bogosian said.