Visto, Microsoft settle patent dispute out of court

Just ahead of a hearing set to begin next Monday on Visto's claims of patent infringement against the Redmond company, the two sides have settled.

Both sides will drop any legal claims as a result of the agreement. Visto had accused Microsoft of infringing on three patents surrounding the synchronization of mobile data. The original suit was filed in December 2005.

Specifically, Visto accused Microsoft of infringing on three patents. These patents cover the system and methods to securely synchronize copies of a workspace element in a network, the method of accessing this data from a computer network, as well as the data manager access, manipulation and synchronization technique.

Both the terms of the deal and any payout to Visto were not disclosed.

"We are pleased that Microsoft agreed to this arrangement which we believe reinforces our ownership of these crucial inventions and technology," Visto co-founder and technology chief Daniel Mendez said in a statement.

The suit was filed around the same time as the RIM/NTP battle. In fact, the day before Visto originally sued Microsoft, it settled with NTP on similar claims. It also has a unsettled suit with BlackBerry maker RIM.

That is set to go to trial in July of this year.