IDG News Service - Research In Motion has 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 $612 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.
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