RIM Strikes Back, Files Countersuit Against Visto

SilentOne writes "Research In Motion Ltd. launched an all-out assault on competitors yesterday, countersuing its latest legal nemesis and introducing software to pre-empt imminent launches by other challengers. The countersuit also gives RIM a chance to move the patent battle to a courtroom where it has a better chance of beating Visto. Visto filed suit against RIM on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, which reportedly favours patent holders in 92% of cases heard by the court. Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-chief executive, said the company wants the trial moved to the Dallas area, where RIM's U.S. headquarters are located, for practical reasons. Meanwhile, RIM is giving away a free software package, valued at US$3,000, to hook the e-mail accounts of small businesses and consumers up to BlackBerries instead of competitive devices from Palm and Microsoft."

Can't you just use pop mail?

[OzPhIsH]

Can't blackberries access a pop acount? Or this this just not good enough? Or you can't you set up e-mail forwarding directly to the users blackberry account if you need "push" mail? Or doesn't this work? I just don't really understand where this estimated software cost is coming from? Do blackberries use weird custom protocols? On a side note, I'm getting my replacement treo600 tomorrow! It succumbed to the known "no service" battery fault a while ago, not to mention a broken top panel by the sd card, with missing buttons, broken volume buttons and a loose antenna. Good thing I have the replacement option paid for. But this had me thinking just how "rugged" are blackberries physically? As far as I know, they have quite similar features as the treo. The cell phone is probably the part I use the LEAST on the thing :) But it has really been through quite the torture test as you might have guessed. Any blackberry owners out there really abuse the thing?

Re:Can't you just use pop mail?

[Anonymous Coward]

Having used the latest BBs for over a year with the best set up (I work for RIM btw), let me give you a few reasons why the BB is different and so good.

-full integration with Exchange/Lotus/groupwise. Any important action which I can do from outlook, I can do from my BB and everythign is mirrored and synchronized
--typically any mail sent to my email gets to the device less than 1-2s after it gets to outlook. deleting, marking as read, forwarding, replying etc, everythign you do to a message on the BB is mirrored in outlook an vice versa.
--calender is wirelessly sync'ed and you can accept requests, send out invitations etc.
--memos, tasks, contacts etc, etc are all wirelessly sync'ed as well. Entering any such data on the BB will automatically send it to outlook. Beleive me, this is VERY useful.
--the BB is efficient and uses A LOT less bandwidth than MS PPC handhelds.
--RIM's has infrastructure is very reliable.
--Security is very very important. The US government uses is extensively, and they even have a BB smart card reader.
--it can be administered remotely, have applications pushed to it, different IT policies enforced etc, pretty easily.

Basically, the handhelds themselves are pretty nice (though not exceptional), the whole package is unbeatable. No wonder the only way companies are trying to stop RIM is through the courts. :\

Re:MOD PARENT FUNNY!!

[abscissa]

Not only is this a standard troll, but it seems that the wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] about slashdot trolling is creating a resurgance in trolls that should have been laid to rest.

Part of me hopes RIM lose

[Viol8]

I'm so sick of being in meetings with people sit their like overgrown
children playing with their Blackberries when they're supposed to be
paying attention. My opinion is that these "tools" far from aiding business
actually cause far more time to be wasted than anything else yet devised
(including the cellphone!) as insecure middle management constantly check
for emails from the boss they're currently brown nosing. It they couldn't
use them I genuinely believe the business enviroment would be a lot
healthier.

About time too.

[clevershark]

It certainly sounds to a lot of people like a bunch of IP parasites are taking it in turns to sue RIM in the hopes that they can cash in on its work and marketing by virtue of it being a foreign company and not used to the USA's sue-happy culture -- that certainly sounds like the NTP case in a nutshell.

Re:What's bad for America is good for China and In

[Urkki]

> $10 trillion economy doesn't become irrelevant.

Huh? Of course it will! It's just a question of when. Roman economy is currently irrelevant. Spanish economy is irrelevant. UK economy is irrelevant. US economy will be irrelevant. Let's hope it won't happen very soon though.

You see, most of that $10 trillion figure depend on most of world trade being in US$, and US foreign debt being $ as well. If that changes, and if it changes too fast, then there'll be trouble... And there will be change when Chinese and Indian economies grow bigger than US economy... And especially if European economy grows much bigger than US economy (but I doubt that very much, unless something extraordinary happens with Eastern Europe and Russia...)

> It might be wishful thinking on your part

Let me assure you that I'd be just as unhappy as you, if not more so, if it were to happen any time soon, 'cos it would be a Bad Thing for both of us, probably...

> No offense to you, but that's why we tend to make money and people like you don't.

So you're a lawyer...? ;-)