The mobile messaging patent wars continue. And, in the background this time, Virginia-based NTP, Inc. has role to play once again.

Visto has filed a suit against Good Technology at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement to four of its 25 patents. This is the second patent case brought by the mob-e-mail provider in a month and a half. The first sought unspecified financial damages and an injunction against Microsoft for Windows Mobile 5.0, which brings push e-mail and exchange integration to handheld and handset operating system.

The mobile solutions vendor's litigiousness started a day after it struck a deal with Research In Motion (RIM) nemesis NTP to hedge bets against its own possible vulnerability to the patent holding company. The two-part NTP agreement involves Visto licensing NTP patents—the same ones that got RIM into its current pickle—and NTP acquiring a stake in the company. Visto and NTP did not reveal how much equity NTP would receive.

Visto asserts Good's push e-mail service GoodLink infringe on patents that Visto has held for the past nine years. The suit seeks a permanent injunction against GoodLink and other supposed Good infringing technology. Good's messaging and data access services is multi-platform, so it's compatible with a number of different mobile devices; including the Palm's Treo series, many Windows Mobile smartphones & Pocket PCs (e.g. HP's hw6500, Dell Axim X50, Cingular 2125, Sprint PPC-6601, etc.) and Nokia's new E61 (a Symbian-based handset). Good settled its own legal dispute with RIM for an undisclosed sum a couple of years ago.

Specific Visto U.S. patents allegedly infringed upon by Good include “System And Method For Synchronizing Electronic Mail Between A Client Site And A Central Site” (5,961,590); “System And Method For Securely Synchronizing Multiple Copies Of A Workspace Element In A Network” (6,085,192); System And Method For Globally And Securely Accessing Unified Information In A Computer Network” (6,708,221); “System And Method For Using A Workspace Data"; and Manager To Access, Manipulate And Synchronize Network Data” (6,151,606). The latter three included as part of Visto's Microsoft suit.

BlackBerry Alternative
Like other players in the mobile e-mail market, Visto touts itself as a viable alternative to the millions of nervous BlackBerry users waiting to hear about fate of their favorite - if not essential - handheld and messaging service.

“There are justifiable marketplace jitters about whether BlackBerry service will be shut down by a federal court next month,” according to Visto Chairman, CEO and president Brian A. Bogosian in a statement. “With Visto, all users, including BlackBerry users, have a safe harbor alternative to RIM that offers protection from intellectual property risks.

Visto provides push e-mail and data access - contacts, calendar, etc. - to a broad set (75) of mobile phones and smartphones from over twenty carriers worldwide. Unlike RIM, for example, Visto stays in the background. Its main focus is on licensing its platform to wireless carriers, such as Cingular, Sprint Nextel and Vodafone, who turn around and sell it under their own brand name.

So it’s not like a consumer, prosumer or enterprise can go "Get me Visto!" should RIM go south. Even if they're aware of Visto's service offerings, most probably don't even know the company exits.

RIM's legal battle with NTP could reach a crescendo later this month, the 24th, when a U.S. Circuit judge may decide to enforce an injunction against the Canadian company selling its wares, including its popular and addictive BlackBerry handhelds and e-mail service, in this country. If that happens, most analysts think it would most likely be a temporally shutdown; until a settlement - in the hundreds of millions, if not a billion dollars or more range - is reached.

Meanwhile, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) continues to reject (in a preliminary mode) NTP patents left and right, leaving some to wonder whether the Virginia-based company has two legs left to stand on. Final rulings on the patents may not arrive for weeks, however; most likely after the judge rules.