Visto lands Microsoft with wireless email lawsuit

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 16 Dec 2005 at 16:41

Microsoft's moves in wireless email have landed it at the wrong end of a patent suit filed by Visto yesterday.

Visto paints the suit, which includes a request for a permanent injunction barring Microsoft from continuing to 'misappropriate' Visto's technology, as matter-of-fact.

Brian A. Bogosian, Visto's Chairman, CEO and President said in a statement: 'Microsoft has a long and well-documented history of acquiring the technology of others, branding it as their own, and entering new markets - which has forced them to acknowledge and settle large IP cases with companies like Sun, AT&T and Burst.com. For their foray into mobile email and data access, Microsoft simply decided to misappropriate Visto's well known and documented patented technology.'

Visto claims Microsoft has violated three of its patents concerning accessing, manipulating and managing centralised data from a remote 'workspace'.

As well as the injunction, Visto also wants fiscal compensation for Microsoft's activities.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports that NTP, a company that has bought an equity stake in Visto, plans to use this action to give credence to its own ongoing patent-infringement suit against RIM - maker of the BlackBerry wireless email system.

However, the US Patent Office recently reviewed the patents in question and rejected all NTP's claims in initial rulings.

Microsoft does not comment on pending litigation.