The patent business is a millionaire. We often see companies register patents for products they can not even imagine building / developing. The point is that intellectual property can generate high revenues (at least outside of Angola). When there is so much money involved, battles are inevitable.
The latest court battle is at least unexpected: BlackBerry accuses Facebook of creating Messenger (and other applications) using ideas from the Canadian company.
"Defendants created messaging applications that incorporate BlackBerry innovations, using a number of innovative security tools, user interface, and improved functionality"The Blackberry said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
"We have a strong claim that Facebook has infringed our intellectual property, and after several years of dialogue, we also have an obligation to our shareholders to seek appropriate legal action"Said BlackBerry spokeswoman Sarah McKinney.
In its heyday, Blackberry was known for having an excellent messaging service, called “Messenger”, which allowed the exchange of messages and images between users, regardless of the operators' networks and without the associated costs they charge.
The war between BlackBerry and Facebook is starting because of Messenger. Blackberry accuses Zuckerberg's company of having copied Messenger functionality to the latest services.
What features have been copied?
BlackBerry accuses Facebook of having copied several of its patents, in addition to the very basic idea of the messaging application, added notifications, unread messages and other features.
The process is not limited to Facebook Messenger, but also hits other Facebook services, such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
What does Facebook say?
Facebook did not let much time to respond, according to a social network spokesman, the BlackBerry has stopped innovating and is wanting to bar the innovation of competing companies.
The Blackberry process sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. - facebook reply
This process comes after several years of conversation between BlackBerry and Facebook, which apparently did not succeed.
Below the full document with the Blackberry charges, detailed in 117 pages.
