BlackBerry Maker RIM Countersues Visto

On Monday, Research In Motion, producer of the popular BlackBerry handheld, filed a countersuit in response to a lawsuit logged last week by Visto regarding patents on wireless e-mail technologies, the Associated Press reports via the New York Post.

RIM is seeking a declaration from a federal judge in Dallas, Texas that states it is not infringing on any Visto patents, according to the AP.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM holds U.S. corporate offices in Texas.

Jim Balsillie, chief executive with RIM, told the AP, “We believe the appropriate place for this to be heard is where we do business.”

The litigation filed by Visto could potentially end up in another long-running legal battle like the one RIM settled in March with NTP for $612.5 million.

Balsillie claims that RIM’s systems are completely different than Visto’s, and therefore it could not be infringing on that company’s patents; however, Daniel Mendez, Visto’s senior vice president of intellectual property, disagrees, according to the AP. Mendez also claims that the patents at hand were reviewed and OK’d by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on three separate occasions, the AP reports.

Visto, which has sued rivals Microsoft and Good Technology on similar grounds in the past, has not specified the damages it’s looking to retrieve, according to the AP.

For related news coverage, read Visto Sues RIM for Patent Infringement.

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