After Facebook, BlackBerry sues Snapchat's parent company for patent infringement
A month after suing Facebook for patent infringement, BlackBerry has now accused Snap Inc. of using its patented technology in the Snapchat app. In a lawsuit filed in the US, BlackBerry has accused Snap of infringing six patents issued to the former, which address map and UI improvements for mobile devices and modern mobile advertising techniques. Notably, the map improvement refers to Snap Map.
BlackBerry accuses Snap of infringing its map improvement for mobile
BlackBerry's statement in this matter
"For more than a year we have been working to establish dialogue with Snap as we believe there are far more opportunities for partnership than disagreement," said a BlackBerry spokesperson. "While we continue to hold this door open, we also have a strong claim that Snap infringed on our intellectual property, harmed our shareholders, and we have an obligation to pursue appropriate legal remedies".
Reportedly, Snap Inc. hasn't reviewed the complaint
According to Mashable, Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. has declined to comment on the lawsuit. However, the publication attributed to a Snap spokesperson saying 'the company (Snap Inc) hasn't yet reviewed the complaint.'
Desperate times call for desperate measures
With BlackBerry's fall from grace, in September 2016, the company had officially fallen to 0.0% of the smartphone market and announced it was exiting the hardware business to focus on software. Since then, the investors have expressed concerns over BlackBerry's growth. CEO John Chen has been working to find additional sources of revenue - sometimes through licensing deals and sometimes through lawsuits.
