See also
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-brinksmanship-as-rim-fends-off.html
RIM successfully defend themselves against Visto patent.
"Visto held a patent for a 'system and method for synchronizing electronic mail across a network'. This was, in effect, (i) a means for retrieving an email from a server, (ii) a synchronisation module for deciding whether to send the email to a second mail store, possibly on a global server which provided HTML access to its contents for roaming users, and (iii) a communications module for establishing a channel with the second mail store, possibly through the second mail store's firewall, to send the email to the second store using HTTP."
UK court found the patent invalid because the invention was (a) obvious and (b) nothing more than a computer program.