APPS
APPS
APPS
BlackBerry sues Facebook for patent infringement in Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram apps
Facebook Inc. is set to face the ghost of Christmas past in a court of law after BlackBerry Ltd. sued the social network giant for patent infringement in its mobile apps.
BlackBerry, last in the news for having its site hacked for cryptomining, claimed in the suit that many of the features of Facebook’s messaging services infringe on their patents. “We have a strong claim that Facebook has infringed on our intellectual property, and after several years of dialogue, we also have an obligation to our shareholders to pursue appropriate legal remedies,” BlackBerry spokesperson Sarah McKinney told Reuters.
BlackBerry is claiming that Facebook and its subsidiaries, specifically WhatsApp and Instagram, “created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry’s innovations, using a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features that made BlackBerry’s products such a critical and commercial success in the first place.”
That BlackBerry products were once commercial successes is a given, with a strong emphasis on the “once were.” But the company famously avoided bankruptcy in 2013 and today sells itself as a tech company that, among other things, designs software used in self-driving cars.
Commenting on the news, Paul Grewal, Facebook deputy general counsel, said that “BlackBerry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, BlackBerry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight.”
This isn’t the first time the litigious company has sued others for alleged patent infringement. In May last year, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. settled a suit brought by BlackBerry regarding royalty payments over BlackBerry-registered intellectual property.
Although it’s actively pursuing IP rights apparently for the sake of shareholders, BlackBerry itself sold the rights for its own name to Chinese phone maker TCL Corp. in December 2016. That’s the same company that had previously acquired the rights to another failed mobile device brand, Palm Inc., in January 2015.
TCL’s efforts to revive the BlackBerry phone brand were about as successful as the namesake’s efforts to compete with the Apple Inc. iPhone and Android phones, meaning not at all. Its first new release last year was a commercial failure.
Photo: janitors/Flickr
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
