Visto: RIM's legal troubles have only just begun

The long running battle between RIM and NTP seems to be close to conclusion with some analysts expecting the companies to reach a settlement to ensure a judge does not close down RIM's US operations. Analyst firm Gartner last month advised its clients to halt all mission critical deployments of Blackberry products just in case the judge rules against RIM.

However the dispute concludes, RIM's future is unlikely to be settled because Daniel Méndez, co-founder and senior vice president of intellectual property at Visto, told ZDNet Australia  that RIM may also be infringing some of its patents.

"We think they are infringing on our technology but we will see. If RIM makes an agreement with NTP that doesn't mean they have entered into an agreement with us. Our portfolio is as pertinent, if not more so," said Mendez.

Mendez believes that Visto's patents, which the company has held for almost nine years, are 'fundamental' to the mobile e-mail market. The company is already suing Microsoft and Good Technology for possible patent infringements and RIM could be next.

"The patents that we have are fundamental to the space. These are patents we filed eight or nine years ago. We have been working on this technology from the very beginning.

"We think that every company in this space has reason to believe their technology infringes on Visto's patents and they need to take a licence from us before the market can continue progressing," he said.

The case between RIM and NTP is expected to drag on for a number of months yet but the future could be a little clearer after 24 February, which is the next scheduled court hearing.