Blackberry is suing social media services Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for allegedly copying their intellectual property, claiming the three have “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.”
The complaint then goes on to specifics, citing Blackberry’s patents for security, user interface, mobile gaming and messaging, and status updates for battery efficiency. Blackberry reiterates the infringement, stating the three defendants had copied their IP to compete with them. Quite strange seeing as all the aforementioned “patents” are now considered to be common and widely-used in practically every network.
Though, this might just be Blackberry’s strategy. The company has used its vault of patents (around 40,000) against several major companies since 2016, the most recent one being Nokia, also for patent infringement.
Facebook’s Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewal released a statement soon after, dismissing the claims and planning to fight back against the lawsuit.
