BlackBerry Sues Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram Over Messaging Patent

BlackBerry, the one-time major smartphone manufacturer, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook that alleges the social networking giant infringed on BlackBerry patents regarding messaging services.

According to the lawsuit, Facebook and a number of its services including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger all make use of patent-protected technology created by BlackBerry, including displaying a count of unread messages on a notification bubble.

The complaint from BlackBerry is 117 pages long, but at the core of it is an allegation that Facebook knocked off BlackBerry Messenger, the company’s once-popular mobile messaging application.

According to BlackBerry, Facebook is “using a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features that made BlackBerry’s products such a critical and commercial success in the first place.”

BlackBerry claims its patents cover cryptographic techniques designed to protect user privacy by encrypting communications between users, the integration of mobile games into messaging services, and user interface elements such as notification bubbles, message timestamps and the ability to tag people in photos.

Facebook’s Messenger platform allows users to play games with each other within the messaging service—a feature that Apple’s Messages app also offers. Other features, like the notification bubble and messaging timestamps, are ubiquitous features found in just about every messaging app on the market.

BlackBerry claims in its lawsuit that Facebook has created messaging applications that “co-opt” the Canadian company’s innovations and called Facebook’s products "relative latecomers to the mobile messaging world."

"[W]e 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," BlackBerry spokeswoman Sarah McKinney said in a statement to Reuters.

"We have a lot of respect for Facebook and the value they've placed on messaging capabilities, some of which were invented by BlackBerry. As a cybersecurity and embedded software leader, BlackBerry's view is that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could make great partners in our drive toward a securely connected future, and we continue to hold this door open to them," BlackBerry said.

Facebook general counsel Paul Grewal responded to the lawsuit in a statement provided to Cheddar. "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," Grewal said.

According to the lawsuit, BlackBerry is seeking “redress for the harm caused by Defendants’ unlawful use of BlackBerry’s intellectual property,” which may include monetary damages.