Visto slaps Microsoft with push email patent infringement suit

Mobile push-email provider Visto has slapped Microsoft with a lawsuit for infringing upon wireless email patents. Visto claims its co-founders developed the technology 10 years ago. In a suit that resembles the NTP/RIM legal brawl, Visto is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Microsoft from producing its Windows Mobile 5.0 wireless email offering. Visto says that Microsoft "misappropriated" the company's patented technology. Microsoft has yet to comment on the lawsuit.

Visto also announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with NTP. The patents that Visto will license from NTP are at the center of NTP's lengthy legal struggle with BlackBerry maker RIM. Although RIM is winning decisions from the USPTO, it is losing the battle in the courts and faces a possible injunction. Analysts see the Visto/NTP partnership as a way for NTP to put pressure on RIM and coerce them to settle the lawsuit before the USPTO finishes rulings on the remaining NTP patents. NTP already has similar deals with push email provider Good Technology and Nokia.

Visto is certainly on the offensive, and there's nothing better than kicking your biggest rival when it's down. The company should be worried about Microsoft entering the push email space as it could dominate alongside RIM. When will the Supreme Court come to RIM's rescue? Tune in for more on the RIM saga as it will inevitably continue to unfold.

For more on the Visto, Microsoft legal battle:
- check out this article from TechWorld