Blackberry is suing Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram.
Blackberry filed a lawsuit on Tuesday March 6th alleging that Facebook is infringing on several patents relating to messaging services.
Blackberry issued a statement saying, we have a strong claim that Facebook has infringed on our intellectual property.
And after several years of dialogue, we also have an obligation to our shareholders to pursue appropriate legal remedies.
Facebook's Deputy General Counsel gave a strongly word or response that said 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.
We intend to fight.
So I trudged through the 117 page lawsuit to see what exactly Blackberry was suing over.
Let's get through some of it.
In the lawsuit Blackberry says that Facebook created mobile messaging applications that co-opt Blackberry's innovations.
These apps include Facebook Messenger.
Whatsapp messenger and Instagram.
One of the patents covers messaging notification techniques.
Blackberry's patent covers a way to modify an icon to alert a user that multiple unread notification are waiting.
Take a look at Blackberry's patent figure and Facebook's way of showing a similar thing.
Blackberry also has a patent covering a user interface for selecting a photo tag and a way to give the user a field to enter a photo.
Blackberry provided images where it says Facebook infringes in this patent.
And let's highlight one more patent.
Blackberry patented a method for displaying timestamps depending on when a message [UNKNOWN] If you.
receive a bunch of messages at once, you don't see one time stamp.
If some time has passed, you may see another time stamp.
Sounds familiar, right?
Blackberry's says Facebook's usage of it's patents have succeeded in diverting consumers away from Blackberry's products and services.
So here is a summary of what Blackberry wants if it wins the lawsuit.
One Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram could no longer infringe on the patents mentioned in this lawsuit.
Two, websites and apps for Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp Messenger, and Instagram, could no longer be made, used or offered for sale.
And three, an unspecified amount of damages Does this mean that Facebook's messaging apps are dead in the water?
Not just yet.
This could end a number of ways.
Facebook's methods may not be covered by BlackBerries patents.
Patents do not cover ideas but specific methods and systems.
Alternatively the two parties could settle out of court.
Facebook could also be engineering new methods to accomplish the same results without infringing on Blackberry's patents.
This ought to be very interesting.
Keep it here at CNET for more coverage.
I'm Iyaz Akhtar and I'll see you online.
