So a lot of us were expecting to see Snapchat suing Facebook for copying the features of its own products, but that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, Facebook got its share from another direction – Blackberry.
The Canadian smartphone giant, in its lawsuit, alleges that the popular social media company has stolen many of the messaging app features from its in-house messaging tool, Blackberry Messenger. The lawsuit includes not just Facebook, but its wholly-owned units WhatsApp and Instagram as well.
It may be noted that Blackberry has recently seen a drastic fall in revenues, which in turn has mounted massive losses on the company. The lawsuit may be seen as the company’s strategy to turn the tables by aggressively monetizing its patents portfolio, which tallies to around 44,000 worldwide.
Shooting accusations at Facebook, Blackberry claimed that the lawsuit was filed as the former failed to pay its due in license fee even after several rounds of talks.
Meanwhile, Facebook has refuted these allegations stating that Blackberry is targeting others’ innovations after abandoning its own attempts at bringing out a better product. The company added that it would legally fight the allegation.
Facebook’s counter does make sense to a certain extent. Blackberry will always be known as the company that refused to adapt to the changing market trends despite holding a major market share at the moment. Blackberry Messenger was perhaps the most reliable and secure messaging platform at that time. However, with great stubbornness comes great damage, and the company crumbled to the emerging fascination for iPhone.
Blackberry, in fact, started a notorious suing habit in 2012. It had earlier filed an enforcement action against BLU Products, Avaya as well as Nokia alleging patent infringement. However, it is unlikely this new strategy is going to cut the ice with investors.