By Angela Gunn, Betanews
A patent war that stretched over two continents and over three years is set to conclude this week as Research in Motion, purveyor of the BlackBerry, agreed to settle a long-running case originally filed by Visto, a wireless e-mail firm based in California.
According to a (rather terse) jointly issued press release, "The key terms of the settlement involve RIM receiving a perpetual and fully-paid license on all Visto patents, a transfer of certain Visto intellectual property, a one-time payment by RIM of US $267.5 million, and the parties executing full and final releases in respect of all outstanding worldwide litigation."
Visto has licensing arrangements in place with Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel Corp. It filed its case against RIM two months after that company settled with NTP Inc, a five-year legal jihad that nearly cut off BlackBerry service in the US. Visto's choice to shop the case to a Texas jurisdiction notorious for extravagant, often fantastical patent-suit awards, as well as the suit it filed against Microsoft five months earlier, led many observers to accuse the firm of troll-like behavior. Subsequent suits and countersuits were filed in California, Canada, and Europe.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009