May 5, 2006

Research in Motion (RIM) kept its patent attorneys busy this week, filing a countersuit against fellow mobile e-mail service provider Visto Corp.

The BlackBerry maker took all of one business day to fire back against Visto, seeking a declaration from a federal court in Dallas that it doesn’t infringe on Visto’s patents.

RIM also hopes to move the case from the Marshall, Texas, court that last week delivered Visto’s victory in a patent-infringement case against Seven Networks Inc.

Visto sued RIM Friday for violating four Visto patents regarding methods for securely synchronizing information across a wireless network and remotely managing e-mail.

RIM has challenged the validity of Visto’s patents, which are being reviewed, and said it will “consider asserting its own patents against Visto.”

RIM settled a long-running legal battle against NTP Inc. earlier this year, paying the patent-holding company $612.5 million. Visto was awarded $3.6 million in damages last week in its case against Seven Networks.

Source: RCR