GoodLink may be bad for RIM

Good Technology is making a serious bid to dethrone Research In Motion (RIM) as the wireless email leader, despite being late to the party.

This week CNet's News.com wrote that Good was teaming with Microsoft to make Good's GoodLink software work with Pocket PCs, one week after it had announced a similar pact with PalmSource. (Yes, it also works on BlackBerry devices.) And today Good announced version 1.5 of GoodLink, which is said to be easier to deploy for large enterprise operations and provides support for Exchange 2002. But that's not to say that RIM is taking this threat to its business lying down.

Recently, RIM filed suit against both Good Technology and Handspring, claiming misappropriation of trade secrets in the Good case and patent infringement in the Handspring case. Meanwhile, back in May, Good brought a lawsuit against RIM seeking to invalidate RIM's patent.

RIM announced a licensing program for its wireless email technology back in April, but it may have been a case of too little, too late. In fact, Brighthand suggested nearly two years ago that RIM concentrate on broadly licensing its technology, even recommending that it consider exiting the device market entirely (see our most recent story on RIM, RIM BlackBerry: Device or Technology? ). Although Good is also entering the device market (it formally announced its own BlackBerry-like G100 handheld today), it seems to be more focused on licensing.