RIM settles Visto suit for $US267 million

Research In Motion agreed to pay rival Visto US$267.5 million to license and buy patents, settling a long-running legal battle.

As part of the deal, RIM received a perpetual and fully paid license on all Visto patents and acquired some Visto intellectual property. The companies also dropped all outstanding lawsuits.

The deal closes a legal battle that started just after RIM settled a disagreement in 2006 with NTP that threatened to shut down BlackBerry phones.

RIM agreed to pay NTP $US612 million after NTP asked the court for an injunction that would have halted e-mail delivery to the phones.

Visto, which recently bought mobile e-mail provider Good Technology from Motorola, has sued several other mobile e-mail providers, including Seven Networks and Microsoft.

Both companies settled the lawsuits. Visto also sued Good before buying the company.

In 2006, Daniel Mendez, a Visto cofounder, said that the lawsuits were an indication of the growing demand for mobile e-mail.

A few companies are technology pioneers in the segment, but new competitors have only recently taken notice because of the market potential, he said at the time.

• Bookmark this page
• Share this article
  •  
  • facebook
  • slashdot
  • digg
  • Reddit
  • stumbleupon
  • linkedin
  • twitter
• Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
• Follow Computerworld on twitter

• Share
  Share this article

  •  google+
  • facebookfacebook
  • slashdotslashdot
  • diggdigg
  • RedditReddit
  • stumbleuponstumbleupon
  • linkedinlinkedin
  • twittertwitter
• print
• email
• Bookmark