RSSVisto Wins Patent Case, Sues RIM
By Ed Oswald | Published May 1, 2006, 3:25 PM
Wireless e-mail firm Visto said Monday that it had won a patent infringement case against Seven Networks, and upon receipt of the verdict it filed another lawsuit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. Monday's victory could also give Visto leverage in its ongoing suits against Microsoft and Good Technology.
A federal jury said Seven had infringed on three patents regarding Visto's mobile e-mail system, and awarded the company $3.6 million in damages. However, Seven says it plans to appeal the verdict and is still pursuing attempts to have Visto's patents thrown out.
"Friday's sweeping decision against Seven Networks validates our claims that Visto's intellectual property serves as the basis for this industry's birth," Visto president, chairman and CEO Brian Bogosian said. "There was no ambiguity in the jury's decision."
"We are clearly disappointed with the verdict," Seven general counsel and vice president of corporate affairs Harvey Anderson said. "We believe minor alterations of the software will avoid the claims in the future, with no disruption to our customers or the user experience."
Seven pointed out that originally Visto had asserted nearly 200 claims on six patents and $12 million in damages, and in the final verdict only five claims on three patents had withstood scrutiny. Additionally, the company has been successful in getting one of Visto's patents rejected by the USPTO.
The same patents plus another are what RIM is being sued over, along with a demand for injunction and unspecified monetary damages. RIM had not publicly responded to the charges as of Monday afternoon.
"RIM must understand that there is no place in the mobile email space for this sort of behavior," continued Bogosian. "Under the law, which protects consumers from products that contain infringing technology, RIM should not be able to sell the BlackBerry system."
Visto would be the second company to attempt to shut BlackBerry down after patent holding company NTP. RIM settled with NTP for $612.5 million in March.
According to company representatives, Visto's patents cover a different portion of wireless e-mail, including remote synchronization and other aspects of the technology. Visto described NTP's patents as the "wheels," while Visto created the "engine."
Visto has been quite litigious as of late. The company sued Microsoft in December, alleging that Windows Mobile 5.0 is a "blatant infringement" on its technology. Then in January, Visto sued Good Technology, saying it infringed on four patents granted between 1999 and 2004. The patents involve the sending of data wirelessly over a network.
"We have invested tens of millions in capital from loyal and patient investors to bring our products from invention to market," said Visto co-founder and vice president Daniel Mendez. "But we are still a small company, and we can only succeed and innovate if large companies are kept from violating the laws that protect inventors and innovators,"
Looks like corporate piracy to me. Maybe the execs at Visto can make there own money. Amazing how everyone wants to attack a winner. These guys made mobile Internet a reality, and beat off Palm and Microsoft. Now the buzzards are flying around, trying to steal some of the glory.
I plan on going to GLOBALCOMM this June in Chicago and cheering RIM CEO Mike Lazardis during his keynote speech.
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America, land of the free money for lawyers. I've got a good business idea - startup a firm with a few creative minds and 100 lawyers. Think up a couple of ideas to patent, wait a few years then sue everybody who has used your idea to make a profit. The best part is, you don't have to spend a dime in R&D, nor support - you just reap the profits!
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You're joking but half serious and the sad thing is this is exactly what "companies" like NTP and Vista do.
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I really wish "news" articles would at least publish the patent numbers implicated. It sure makes it difficult to corroborate this crap independently. A search of USPTO for "in/visto or an/visto" turns up about 7 patent filings since 1976. But that could be missing the one(s) involved here. Maybe 6,023,708?
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Darn curious! Seems to me that email systems have been around for a long time, I am certain that RIM was doing email before 1999.
At this rate, code routines in DWORDs of limited size will be patented, then court cases will abound.
Seems to me that 'someone' the government maybe needs to fire up a Technical Patent review on the whole issue of computation routines.
The whole patent thingy is getting out of hand.
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this seems a little too easy to take advantage of:
1. i create a simple but ingenius way to transmit data
2. i patent it
3. i wait for another company to start using my technology without knowledge there's a patent on it
4. i wait longer, for them to establish a solid base for that product, and userbase
5. depending on how much punative damages i want to collect for, i wait
6. i sue them for all the money they made on a product they created, based on an idea that we both had, but i patended first.
sounds like a scam to me
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actually, if they wait long enough without contesting it, they lose their right to sue
spose ya could say its an art
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"spose ya could say its an art"
It should be patented then! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
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It's the job of EVERY company and individual to research intellectual property holdings prior to developing their own. That's just common sense. So step #3 doesn't really hold water. Until lately, big corporations would gamble that a vaguely worded patent might be indefensible in court, but lately those bets have lost. Mostly due to inept judgements paving the way for more frivolous suits (like this one). I hope Visto gets soundly defeated and spanked, otherwise the courts are in for a real load of cases next year.
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If the technology is theres, then they seserve the money.
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What???
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I *think* he meant to say that "if the technology is THEIR'S then they DESERVE the money."
I agree, unless of course they're greedy hogs that have no technology of their own, they just had an idea of how to steal money to account for their own failure to run a business.
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RIM invented and developed their own software and e-mail system. Other companies like Visto and NTP just managed to be the first to get patents. RIM should never have had to pay NTP anything. Visto will probably get money they don't deserve as well. Companies should try actually inventing something innovative instead of getting money from other people's ideas.
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This is just yet another sign that the current patent system is failing. Why was RIM not pursued years ago by Visto, if this is really a case worth pursuing? It's blatant money-grabbing with one company salivating after seeing NTP's ill-gotten windfall.
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Exactly... if you have a case against someone, you don't go after them years later after their product is already on the market and gains majority use. If you have a legitimate complaint, you move on your own product and you go after an infringement case pre-emptively to prevent them from being a problem. Unless of course you're admitting your own failures to run a business and just want to grab someone else's money to compensate for your own incompetence....
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US Patent reform... a joke
Where is FFII.US?
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