Visto seeks damages from Good in patent fight

Visto has filed a lawsuit against rival mobile email firm Good Technology, claiming patent infringement.

According to Visto, Good and its GoodLink push email offering infringe a number of patents Visto has held for nine years.

Visto is now seeking a "permanent injunction" to stop Good selling its push email service, as well as monetary damages.

News of the suit was a surprise to Good. A spokesman said: "Until we have an opportunity to see and review the complaint, we're not in a position to comment."

The move follows a string of patent spats in the mobile email world. Visto filed a similar infringement case against Microsoft last year.

The company also entered into a licensing agreement with NTP at around the same time. NTP has been battling RIM through the US courts over alleged patent infringement which could theoretically see the BlackBerry maker having to shut down its service across the pond.

Mobile email is fast becoming one of the hot areas for operators and handset vendors currently trying to tackle the 99 per cent of corporate inboxes that haven't yet gone mobile.

By 2008, according to research firm Gartner, mobile email will be available on all smart phones with $9bn being spent on mobile data in North America alone. Fellow research firm Quocirca found that 60 per cent of enterprises are now considering rolling out mobile email, with 18 per cent of companies carrying out a business-led deployment.