BlackBerry is suing Facebook – and its subsidiaries WhastApp and Instagram – on charges of infringing several of its patents related to technologies for exchanging messages. BlackBerry believes that Facebook has used the systems developed for BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), an application that even before the spread of modern smartphones was used to exchange messages and receive notifications.
In documents filed with a California court, BlackBerry claims that Facebook used “innovative security, user interface and other features that have led to the success of BlackBerry products.” The list of patent infringement charges is long and includes many of the features of Facebook and its mobile applications. They range from systems for encrypting messages – so that they are readable only by the sender and recipient – to the possibility of inserting tags, passing through other elements of the interfaces.
BlackBerry believes that Facebook has also copied its notification system, including graphic tricks to show a number next to the icons, indicating the amount of notifications to read. This system is the basis of much of the success of Facebook and its other applications, which attract the attention of users and cause them to return more frequently to the apps to check the latest news.
BlackBerry at the moment says it is considering several options for compensation: from asking for money to obtaining injunctions to prevent Facebook from using certain technologies until the legal dispute is resolved. Facebook responded to the allegations by saying it was going to “fight” and one of its main legal advisors, Paul Grewal, used very scornful words: “BlackBerry's lawsuit sadly demonstrates the state in which its messaging industry has shrunk. . Having abandoned any effort to innovate, BlackBerry is now trying to make money from the innovations of others. We intend to fight. “
For many years, the Canadian company BlackBerry has been synonymous with the “business mobile phone”. Its highly recognizable devices – thanks to the miniature QWERTY keyboard – were in the hands of millions of employees and managers of companies around the world. Compared to traditional mobile phones, they allowed you to send emails and surf the Internet, albeit with considerable limitations and often on a limited number of sites. It is estimated that in the first few years after 2000, the network operated by BlackBerry for its email service had over 80 million subscribers. The company underestimated the arrival of Apple's iPhones and Android devices, imagining that companies would not invest in products that seemed designed for individual consumers and not for integrated management in the workplace. Thanks to the company policies of using one's personal device also to work, things went another way: in a few years BlackBerry went from a market value of around 61.7 billion dollars to 2.5 billion dollars.
Today the company is very different and only partially deals with smartphones: in 2016 it sold the rights to design, produce and sell new phones under the BlackBerry brand to the Chinese multinational TCL, keeping only the management of some software and systems for itself. security for mobile telephony. Thanks to a major refurbishment, it has managed to reduce losses and is now experimenting with, among other things, new systems for autonomous driving of vehicles. The lawsuit against Facebook could drag on for years and prove futile, but it could also lead to an out-of-court settlement that would benefit the company.
