Bloombergfirst reported thelawsuiton Tuesday . It claims that BlackBerry has been attempt to resolve Snap ’s alleged infringement of six of its patents for the last year . “ Various letter of the alphabet , call and an in - soul confluence , ” as the suit order it , have ensue in loser to find an acceptable result .
It should come as no surprise that the letters patent relate to BlackBerry ’s BBM message servicing that was study the cap jewels of the company in the daylight when it was known as “ CrackBerry ” due to its popularity . Among the feature that BlackBerry take Snap stole , it number the show of timestamps in the message port , and “ function proficiency to establish and asseverate real - time activity placement information . ”
According to the charge :
Defendant ’s use of BlackBerry ’s invention and infringement of the Patents - in - Suit have bring home the bacon in diverting consumer forth from BlackBerry ’s products and services and toward those of Defendant . This violation has resulted in a satisfying and undeserved manna from heaven for Defendant as these users drive Defendant ’s receipts . Defendant ’s profit come at BlackBerry ’s disbursal , deprive BlackBerry of revenue to which it is entitle as a solution of its inventions .
While Snap has experience rapid growth over the last few years , it ’s hard to call it a success story . For the last two months , itsstock pricehas drop off further towards oblivion . It ’s presently close to an all - time low after getting a huge protuberance in January . That ’s leave intworoundsof layoff of more than 200 people .
BlackBerry , on the other hand , is on the rise despite being naut mi off from its mid - aughts peak . In 2008 it was selling at $ 144 per share ; today it goes for about 10 clam . But it advance around50 percentin 2017 as it ’s issue forth to term with its new business approach . TCLlicensedthe BlackBerry name in 2016 and has manufactured severalnew handsets . BlackBerry LTD pivoted to becomea software troupe , but some analysts think that it has muchgreater potentialin profiting from litigation around its letters patent portfolio . IEEE ranked BlackBerry fourth in the class of internet and communication services for its annualpatent business leader rankingsin 2016 . Google , Facebook , and Verizon were the only fellowship to rank higher .
In 2015 , BlackBerry CEO John Chenclaimedthat the ship’s company hold “ about 44,000 patent of invention , ” and monetisation of those patents “ is an important aspect of our turnaround . ” Since then , it ’s filed judicial proceeding againstFacebook , Avaya , BLU , Nokia , Cisco , and most bizarrely , Ryan Seacrest for hisTypo iPhone casethat attempted to slap a BlackBerry - comparable keyboard on an iPhone .
Investors seem to like the scheme , and so far it ’s resulted in numeroussettlements . Whether BlackBerry ’s various title have deservingness will be up to the courts to decide , but the feature it mention in the suit sure seem to fall into the category of “ just the way things are now . ” A patent for a timestamp on a message seems as obvious and frivolous as IBM’sclaimon out - of - office e-mail . But hey , I ’m not a corporate patent of invention attorney .
We ’ve reach out to Snap for remark and to call for if it will fight BlackBerry in court . We ’ll update this post when we receive a response .
[ Bloomberg ]
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