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RIM settles with patent holder Visto to the tune of $267.5 million
Research in Motion hit a milestone today, only "achievement" wouldn't necessarily be the best way to describe it. The BlackBerry maker has finally ended a long-running patent dispute with Visto Corp., paying out $267.5 million to settle the matter -- a much larger fee than the $7.7 million Visto got from Seven Networks, but conversely a fraction of the reported $612.5 million RIM paid to settle with NTP years back. With it, however, comes a fully paid license to use Visto's patents, and some of the plaintiff's intellectual property by way of transferred ownership. So now that we can move on from that dispute, who's next to take the mantle and vie for a piece of BlackBerry's pie?
Motorola flips Good Technology to Visto after brief, fruitless marriage
A little over two years after acquiring push email and mobile fleet management provider Good Technology for well over $400 million dollars in an apparent bid to out-BlackBerry BlackBerry, Motorola's giving up. Little consumer-facing goodness has come from the acquisition in the brief time the two firms were locked in holy matrimony, but Good's new suitor -- fellow mobile email player Visto -- seems like a better fit for the company, and in all likelihood, they're picking it up at a fire-sale price on account of the down economy and Moto's many, many misfortunes. Got anything else to sell up in that creaky attic of yours, Moto? Like a cool phone, fr'instance?
Visto Mobile does Exchange, Lotus Notes for iPhone
It's not the first product to tout enterprise email integration for the iPhone, but Visto Mobile has announced a solution of its own, promising secure access to Exchange and Domino servers without any software install on the iPhone -- a good thing, we'd say, considering that most IT departments frown on having to hack their fleet of mobile devices to set them up. Unlike Synchronica's solution which games Exchange's Outlook Web Access feature to avoid having to expose POP or IMAP servers to the world, Visto Mobile actually does require that admins open up a secure IMAP port and publishes the corporate directory to a Safari-friendly web page. Many IT departments frown on all that, too, so if you're planning on pitching this lil' solution to your own IT peeps, know full well that you may be turned away brokenhearted. Individual users can get in on the action for a one-time fee of $39 plus $10 per month, while companies are looking at $799 plus $199 per year plus $10 per month per user. Whew, patent suits must not be cheap, huh?Update: Turns out Visto uses port 443 -- typically used for secure HTTP -- to do its IMAP thing, so your IT department should calm down a bit when they find out they don't need to open special holes in the firewall just for your iPhone-totin' behind.
TUAW Interview: Visto corporate email for iPhone
As much love as we may have and hold for the iPhone, there's a substantial chunk of the market that is resistant to the siren call of this miraculous device: those of us with enterprise email accounts (Exchange or Lotus Notes/Domino) that don't want any part of this shiny yummy new world. This may not be the most serious pushback from enterprise users -- see Tom Yager's scathing review of iPhone for enterprise use for some genuine buzzkill -- but it's a sticky wicket. Yes, both Exchange and Domino can be accessed over IMAP for compatibility with the iPhone's Mail application, but in many BigCorpInc scenarios the IMAP access is blocked for security or performance reasons. With this in mind, there's a tremendous appetite for a more suave method of accessing enterprise mail, not to mention the calendar and contact data that lies alongside those messages. We've seen the insinuation from Steve that "something's coming" in the next few weeks, and the rumored ActiveSync licensing deal, but only one company has announced a product for enterprise mail on the iPhone: Visto. Update: Commenter 'stickybit' passes along the Synchronica announcement, via iLounge -- that makes 2 companies.Since the June 28th Visto press release was thin on implementation details of how Visto's solution would work, we've been eager to get more info, and now we have it. I spoke to Haniff Somani, Visto's VP/Chief Architect, earlier this week and got a preview of how Visto's solution will deliver corporate email to the cranky corporate iPhone users.
Visto scores $7.7 million in phone patent ruling, not stopping yet
And so it continues. We've never been the greatest fans of Visto and its money-grabbing patent lawsuit methods, be it's hard to argue with results. The last time we hear from Visto, it was busy suing RIM, Microsoft and Good Technology, having just won a spankin' $3.6 million from victim defendant Seven Networks. Well it looks like the worst wasn't over for Seven, since the judge in that case just doubled the price for accumulated interest, and then piled on Visto's legal fees for a grand total of $7.7 million. Brian Bogosian, CEO of Visto, says the decision "heralds a victory for true innovation and for lawful invention, whether it is conceived by a large corporation or by a passionate few toiling in the dim lights of a garage." At least with that kind of cash they can finally afford to furnish the garage with that rad shag carpet and foosball table they've been eyeing, so bully for them.
BlackBerry strikes back, countersues Visto
RIM isn't just taking that new suit of Visto's lying down, and have countersued, asking a federal judge to declare three of the patents in question invalid. We all know how well this worked out last time, and Visto has recently won a case with a few of these patents against Seven Networks, but RIM did manage to get most of NTP's patents struck down before that fateful settlement of theirs. Visto has 20 days to respond to RIM's claims, but we have a feeling they're not going anywhere. Let the games begin.
Patent holder Visto wants a share of that RIM pie
You know, it has been a bit RIM-patent-fiasco-free around these parts lately. But no worries, since Visto has decided to whip up a bit (more) patent trouble of their own. Fresh off a victory over Seven Networks regarding the same four patents that they claim RIM is infringing, and already mired in legal fights with RIM competitor Good Technology and Microsoft, Visto is looking for more, and they think they can get a payout from RIM. Visto wasn't clear as to what RIM technology is infringing on their patents, but they do mention "Visto's intellectual property serves as the basis for this industry's birth." Quite the strong words when going up against RIM, who had a slight influence on the birth of the wireless email industry if our memory serves us right. RIM believes that the Visto patents are invalid, and that Visto's victory over Seven Networks was in regards to a different type of technology than RIM's. Their patents are also dated before Visto's, but there's really no telling where this could go after the fiasco the NTP case turned out to be. We'll keep you posted.
