It’s certainly been a rough 10 years for Blackberry. For a time their market share rivaled that of Nokia, then Apple came along and destroyed them. I must admit, I have always been a closet fan of their products, particularly their tablets which were admittedly bulky, but had some excellent build quality and some of the best speakers I’ve encountered.
Despite that rough patch, after some major business restructuring, Blackberry these days is doing alright for itself and even recently posted a tidy profit. It seems, however, that in a report via Metro, they have now turned their eye towards Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram and have launched legal action against all three companies for a potential patent infringement.
In a report via Metro, Blackberry is submitting that the three companies have infringed upon a patent within the Blackberry Messenger service. In the allegation, Blackberry has said that the: ‘Defendants created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry’s innovations, using a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features.’ – I think we can all agree, that is rather vague, to say the least.
Facebook’s Paul Grewall has been rather scathing in his response. He has 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.’
It may surprise you to learn that Blackberry holds an estimated 40,000 global patents. From these, it is thought that the company, based on its restructuring, may look to these (and any potential infringements) to make some money.
It is a rather sad turn of events is Blackberry has to resort to litigation as a means of self-propagation. Then again, if the patent has been violated, then they could be owed a sum of money and considering the defending are Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram, we could be talking several hundreds of millions in compensation.
At this point though, with such a vague law case, I’m not quite sure what to think. What do you think? Are they right or wrong to pursue this legal action? – Let us know in the comments!
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