Patent Infringement: BlackBerry sues Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat, alleges copying of features from BB Messenger

April 9,2018;

BlackBerry has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram apps in Los Angeles Federal Court contending that they copied technology and features from BlackBerry Messenger.

Litigation over patent infringement is part of BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen’s strategy for making money for the company, which has lost market share in the smartphone market it once dominated.

BlackBerry has claimed that it has only sued Facebook after "several years of dialogue" with the social network.

BlackBerry has further alleged that,“Defendants created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry’s innovations, using a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features,” Canada-based BlackBerry said in a filing with a Los Angeles federal court.

Facebook Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewal said that,“Blackberry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business,” Grewal said. “Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, Blackberry is now looking to tax the innovation of others.”

BlackBerry has sued Snapchat for allegedly infringing its patented messaging technology in the Snapchat app.

The 71-page complaint accused Snapchat of infringing six patents, including map improvements for mobile devices, advertising techniques and user interface improvements for mobile devices.

Complaint cites Snapchat Maps and the display count of the unread messages on a notification dot as infringing activities.

BlackBerry stated that Snap used the company's intellectual property to compete with it in the messaging space, diverting users from BlackBerry toward Snapchat. The report also cited the complaint as saying that BlackBerry attempted to resolve the matter without going to court.

BlackBerry sold the rights to design, manufacture and sell BlackBerry-branded devices to Chinese company TCL in 2016 and now produces the company's software and mobile security products.

BlackBerry is trying to persuade other companies to pay licensing royalties to use its trove of more than 40,000 global patents on technology including operating systems, networking infrastructure, acoustics, messaging, automotive subsystems, cyber-security and wireless communications.

BlackBerry sued Nokia Corp in February 2017, alleging infringement of patents relating to 3G and 4G wireless communications technology. That case is still pending in federal court in Delaware.

In 2017, Qualcomm Inc agreed to pay BlackBerry $940 million to resolve arbitration over royalty payments.