A month after suing Facebook, BlackBerry is going after Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc.
To make up for its decline in revenues since ditching the smartphone market, the Canadian tech company has been sifting through its patents to find new opportunities for licensing deals, and lawsuits against companies it believes have been infringing on its IP.
The latest lawsuit accuses Snap of infringing on six patents issued in 2012 and 2014. Two them are among the seven patents that were in the suit against Facebook filed last month, according to Bloomberg, which also reported that Snap had declined to comment.
The six patents BlackBerry says Snap is infringing upon include mapping improvement for mobile devices, user interface improvements for mobile devices and modern mobile advertising techniques.
The lawsuit refers to Snapchat’s launch of Snap Maps, launched last summer.
“BlackBerry attempted to resolve this dispute without resorting to litigation. It has been communicating with Defendant for over a year regarding its patent portfolio, including various letters, calls and an in person meeting,” the Los Angeles-based federal court filing states.
Patents have become a significant part of the business, something BlackBerry CEO John Chen emphasized during a recent earnings call for the company’s 2018 fourth quarter.
Chen pointed out the company’s IP licensing brought in approximately $100 million on an annual basis, and that BlackBerry is “starting to expand our technology licensing business into the consumer electronics sectors, broadening our reach in enterprise of things.”
You can read a copy of the lawsuit below.
375462181 BlackBerry Snap Inc Complaint by Alex Coop on Scribd
Our thanks to investment research platform Seeking Alpha for the transcriptions from BlackBerry’s March 28 Q4 earnings call.
