Microsoft gets email injunction from Visto

'You want the patents, you got to pay for them'

Mobile email software provider Visto is to take legal action against Microsoft, claiming the software giant has misappropriated its intellectual property.

According to Visto, Microsoft has infringed a number of the company's patents around secure access to mobile email and other data and Visto is now seeking an injunction against the company.

According to Visto's CEO, Brian Bogosian, Microsoft is now trying to cash in on the booming mobile email market by using Visto's technology for free.

He said in a statement: "They are a big, powerful, wealthy company but they have no real growth, even in their most profitable divisions. They want to show investors that they can sustain growth in a new, developing market, like mobile access to email and data, but they cannot be permitted to do that by misappropriating another company's intellectual property."

Further details are expected in a conference call later today.

A Microsoft spokesman said the company would not comment on pending litigation but "Microsoft stands behind its products and we understand and absolutely respect the importance of intellectual property rights".

Visto also announced today it has signed a licensing agreement with NTP, also in a patent spat over mobile email. NTP is currently battling it out in the courts with RIM in a case which could in theory stop the BlackBerry-maker operating in the US.