RIM wins patent dispute over push e-mail

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. will avoid a trial with Visto Corp. after a Canadian court ruled the privately held California-based company infringed on three RIM patents.

Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM will receive royalties from Visto after the smaller company dropped its defence to a lawsuit filed by the BlackBerry maker in 2006. RIM sued Visto in Canadian Federal Court for infringing patents related to its "push e-mail," the method in which messages are sent from its servers to Blackberry devices.

Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Visto "threw in the towel,'' Ronald Dimock, a lawyer for RIM, told Bloomberg News. "There is no settlement.''

The two companies must still agree on a royalty payment plan, Dimock said.

Visto, which sells push e-mail capabilities for mobile phones including Apple Inc.'s iPhone, agreed not to challenge RIM's suit about two weeks before it was scheduled to go to trial on May 12. Federal Court Judge Roger Hughes ruled May 21 that Visto had infringed 13 claims on three patents, upholding previous preliminary findings.

Visto doesn't admit to infringing on RIM's patents, but has no problems with paying a "reasonable" royalty, the company's lawyer Tim Gilbert told Bloomberg.

The two companies are still involved in a patent dispute in Texas. Visto sued RIM for patent infringement, prompting a countersuit from the BlackBerry maker.