Seven Networks ordered to pay Visto $7.7 million, but when will Visto execute?

Visto, the Redwood City wireless messaging company, continues to fight legal battles to protect its patents, but it also continues to lose money, and shows no signs of ever being able to make some.

A Texas court has ordered Seven to pay (see this story for details on Visto’s legal battles) Visto $7.7 million in damages plus attorney fees for infringing on Visto patents. The figure is double the damages set by a jury in April.

But Seven, also based in Redwood City, said it would appeal and pursue its own patent-infringement claims against Visto.

If bias is creeping into VentureBeat’s reporting about Visto, it is because we’re beginning to lose faith in this company’s ability to ever get anything done. It has eaten through $350 million in venture backing, and is being supported by large venture firms like Oak Investment Partners, that have raised money from the public pension funds. So public retirement money is indirectly supporting this company’s legal fights. That’s fine, but we hope someone at Washington State, a key backer of Oak, is asking why.

(This story originally posted 12/21)