Patent battles continue to rage across the wireless enterprise industry, as Visto Corp. joins the fray with separate lawsuits against rival wireless e-mail companies Infowave Software and Seven Networks Inc.
The nation’s courts have already engaged several such lawsuits from similar players, with Research In Motion Ltd., Pumatech Inc., Good Technologies Inc. and others embroiled in patent litigation. Analysts have cited the sluggish economy as the main driver for most of the legal squabbles, as companies look to shore up their businesses and protect their patents while hoping to bleed their competitors with costly litigation.
Indeed, Visto is fresh off a massive $50 million funding round. Visto Chief Executive Officer Brian Bogosian told RCR Wireless News in June that the company would use its funding in part to fund potential legal battles.
Visto filed its lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The company alleges Infowave is violating its patent No. 5,961,590, which relates to the system and method for synchronizing e-mail. Visto claims Seven is violating two Visto patents, Nos. 6,085,192 and 6,023,708, which describe systems and methods for securely synchronizing multiple copies of a workspace element in a network, and the use of a global translator to synchronize workspace elements across a network.
“Visto has spent seven years and nearly $100 million dollars researching, developing and patenting technologies that are key to the secure synchronization of data within networks, and which are vital to Visto’s industry-leading solutions for data mobility,” Visto’s Bogosian said. “We believe that Infowave and Seven have built significant portions of their businesses on unauthorized use of our patents, with absolutely no patents of their own. Visto has the resources and the will to see that all illegal uses of our technologies are stopped.”
Infowave and Seven issued press releases following the news, both claiming to have not yet viewed the suits and proclaiming their innocence.
“Seven can only infer from the lack of communication that this action is part of a campaign by Visto to unjustly claim proprietary rights to real innovation and open standards,” Seven said in its release. “Seven hopes that the wireless community will follow our lead, focus on creating products to benefit customers and not engage in frivolous litigation.”
Visto, Seven and Infowave all offer wireless e-mail and corporate information access products.
