RIM GETS A DELAY IN VISTO PATENT TRIAL

[Metropolitanjury]

Research In Motion won a delay in a patent-infringement case filed by Visto regarding wireless e-mail technology.

The trial was scheduled to begin next Monday in Marshall, Texas, but the judge said a postponement was warranted until the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office re-examined the four disputed patents.

In the order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham said a delay until the patent review is complete "is more likely to streamline the issues for trial than it would in the usual case."

RIM had filed for the stay in April, and it has agreed not to use the information in the review when the trial is held. It also agreed not to file other requests with the Patent Office for new reviews.

Visto produces software for companies such as Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel that competes with RIM's BlackBerry e-mail and calendar products.

In 2006, it filed a lawsuit claiming that RIM was using Visto's wireless e-mail technology without a license. Visto had asked for unspecified damages and for RIM's network to be shut down.

RIM denies it has infringed on Visto's patents, and it countersued to try and invalidate three of Visto's patents. The maker of the BlackBerry line of smartphones said that the disputed patents should not have been granted because they don't contain new inventions.

On Thursday, the Patent Office validated 21 of claims of a Visto patent that RIM had challenged. The patent involves technology for syncing e-mail between a LAN server and a mobile device. The patent, No. 7,039,679, was filed in 2003 and was granted in 2006.

Both companies are not strangers to the courtroom. Visto has been in similar patent disputes with Seven Networks and Microsoft, while RIM was ordered to pay NTP $612.5 million for infringement in 2006.

By Ms.Bobby Aanand, Metropolitan Jury.