Wireless Messaging Vendors Try To Assert Position With Patent Disputes

On the heels of a recent patent suit filed by start-up Good Technologies against rival Research In Motion (RIM), Visto, a provider of cross-platform wireless messaging services, said attorneys are in the process of reviewing company patents.

Visto, which released its first messaging product in 1997, owns eight patents and could have claims against some newcomers to the space, according to Daniel Mendez, CTO of Visto.

"I wouldn't mention a specific company, but we are definitely going to enforce our intellectual property rights," he said in an interview with CRN. "What course of action we will take we haven't singled out yet."

Among the key patents is the ability to update a single mailbox across a number of different devices. For example, a mobile worker could delete an e-mail on a handheld, and Visto's technology could wirelessly communicate that action to the corporate e-mail server and also the inbox on a home computer, Mendez said.

Good Technology, which is selling a behind-the-firewall messaging product to be used with RIM devices, also touts a wireless sync capabilities; RIM, meanwhile, requires the user to sync back at the desktop to update an inbox.

Dan Elliott, vice president of mobile business solutions at CompuCom, Dallas, said there may be a number of yet-undisclosed patent disputes in the offing. He said the recent suit is cause for concern.

"You have to wonder from a patent perspective how this is going to play out," Elliott said. "I've got to think that there will be some issues there."

The Good Technologies suit, filed last month, attempts to confirm that the company's technology does not infringe on patents held by RIM, according to a company statement.

"RIM has been vocal about protecting its single-mailbox patent," the statement said. "Good does not infringe on RIM's single-mailbox patent."

A RIM spokeswoman said the company would not comment on legal matters.

Mark Hugh Sam, an wireless analyst at Dundee Securities, Ontario, Canada, said he believes the patent claims are simply a way for smaller companies to try to shore up a position in an increasingly competitive but relatively slow-growth market. "At this point, we don't expect wireless to take off until at least 2003," he said.

Hugh Sam estimates market penetration for wireless e-mail devices, including the RIM, Palm IV and Handspring Treo, total about 1 million in the United States. RIM drives are growing the fastest, but the company currently offers an messaging solution that only support its own devices, and Hugh Sam said customers are beginning to demand cross-compatibility for Palm- and Microsoft-based products.

Although it serves a slightly different market, synchronization software maker, PumaTech also recently filed its own patent suit. PumaTech announced in April a patent infringement action against Extended Systems, alleging that Extended Systems' server and desktop product infringe on seven of PumaTech's synchronization-related patents.