Hours after striking a licensing deal with RIM's tormentor, NTP, mobile email provider Visto is suing Microsoft for patent infringement.

"Microsoft has a long and well-documented history of acquiring the technology of others, branding it as their own, and entering new markets," said CEO Brian Bogosian in a statement.

"For their foray into mobile email and data access, Microsoft simply decided to misappropriate Visto's well known and documented patented technology."

Visto alleges that Microsoft infringed on three patents, No.6.085,192, No. 6,708,222 and 6,151,606, relating to the synchronization and access of data over a network. The US Patent and Trademarks Office threw out ten of the 25 claims in the first, patent '192 in March, after re-examining the patent.

Visto will hold a press conference later today. The Silicon Valley based company is locked in ligitation with arch rival Seven, and added to its stack of suits by suing Seven subsidiary Smartner for infringing five patents back in March. ®

Related stories

RIM countersues Visto over patent spat (4 May 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/04/rim_sues_visto/
Visto sues Seven, targets RIM (2 May 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/02/visto_sues_seven_rim/
RIM puts $613m settlement in motion (3 March 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/03/rim_ntp_settle/
Lawsuit forces users to update Microsoft Office (7 February 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/microsoft_office_access_infringement/
Visto claims Good done bad (1 February 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/01/visto_sues_good/
RIM reveals free Mac Blackberry sync software (13 January 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/13/rim_supports_mac/
Intel backs RIM in Supreme Court appeal bid (12 January 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/12/intel_backs_rim/
US patents get open-source flavour (11 January 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/11/us_patents_tweaked/
RIM 'close' to revealing injunction-busting technology (20 December 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/20/rim_vs_ntp/
Visto razzes RIM with NTP alliance (15 December 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/15/ntp_visto_deal/
Mobile patents war shifts to email (29 November 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/29/mobile_email_patents_war/
Supremes shun RIM appeal (27 October 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/27/supremes_rim/
Visto expands sync suit (30 April 2004)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/30/visto_expands_sync_suit/
Lawsuits In Motion files suit against Xerox (29 July 2003)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07/29/lawsuits_in_motion_files_suit/