On on top of the $7.7 million in damages, Judge John Ward stiffed Seven for Visto's legal fees. Visto General Counsel Tim Robbins speculated that the fees award could be big topping, possibly equaling the damages. "I'm informed that enhancing the damages and awarding of attorney's fees is a very rare occurrence in the Eastern District or anywhere, and it emphasized the strength of our case that Seven's infringement was willful."

Visto proved willfulness through cross-examination of Seven's principals. Seven's founder testified that they had gotten a legal opinion averting the willful charge, but failed to turn it over after promising to do so. Robbins: "You draw your own conclusions. Seven stipulated that it would not be offering any evidence of opinions, but then admitted under cross-examination that it did receive one from a patent attorney." Robbins, not a patent attorney, said that the infringement was blatant. "It's hard to conclude that they don't infringe the technology. It's so fundamental to this space."

Judge Ward also granted a permanent injunction, stayed pending appeal.

Also under the gun for the same patents are Good Technology and Microsoft, as well as a Nokia software provider, Helsinki-based Smartner Information Systems.

Blackberry-maker RIM, with all the patent wiles of a wide-eyed raccoon on a busy highway at night (i.e., roadkill), filed for declaratory judgment of invalidity and non-infringement in June in the Northern District of Texas; this in response to Visto filing in May, seeking nothing less than wiping RIM out of the U.S. market for wireless email devices. RIM filed its Visto suit just after coughing up $613 million to NTP for infringing its patents, a settlement aggrieved from RIM taking itself to the brink of an injunction in that case.