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Jul. 19, 2009

RIM (Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry) has officially settled its years-old patent battle with Visto.

However, and as some had already predicted, it didn’t do much to the price of its stock, which was up only about two percent after Friday’s news.

RIM will pay Visto $267.5 million to settle the litigation and get a perpetual license on all Visto patents.

The settlement is expected to be completed July 22.

Visto completed its acquisition of Good Technology from Motorola in the early spring. Two months ago, the privately held company acquired Intercasting Corp., the mobile social networking company.

The settlement actually removes a potential overhang and could possibly lower RIM’s overall legal costs. UBS Securities says that nationwide checks of Verizon Wireless stores indicate early demand for the BlackBerry Tour, which went on sale July 12 through Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

It will be interesting to see what will be the long-term effects of this decision on RIM's future sales and earnings.

RIM is already starting to feel the effects of the competition of Apple's new G3 S iPhone.

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Source: Verizon Wireless.