Blackberry sues Facebook for Patent Infringement

Blackberry had moved forward with a lawsuit filed in California against Facebook for infringing numerous patents, including US patents 7,372,961; 8,209,634; 8,279,173; 8,301,713; 8,429,236; 8,677,250; and 9,349,120. Blackberry is asserting that Facebook and its subsidiaries are infringing these patents, specifically with regard to messaging applications including, Facebook and Facebook Messenger for Android and iOS devices, WhatsApp Messenger for Android and iOS devices, and Instagram for Android and iOS devices, as well as the Facebook website.
Blackberry's patents cover a range of features and represent their portfolio-based approach, where a number of patent applications are filed on various aspects of a product. This creates the greatest uncertainty for Facebook - while they might be able to dodge one or two patents, dodging the whole portfolio becomes much more difficult.
Balckberry's patents are not pure software patents, but rather some address the interface with hardware. Specifically, US 9,349,120 (titled, "System and method for silencing notifications for a message thread") a covers communication system configured to silence notifications for incoming electronic messages. The system includes a data processor and non-transitory media readable by the data processor and a communications subsystem, and relates to controlling the display of certain information. Elements of claim 1 include instructions to:
receive a selected message thread for silencing;
in response to receiving the selected message thread, activate a flag stored in the non-transitory media in association with the selected message thread, wherein the flag indicates that the selected message thread has been silenced;
determine that a new incoming electronic message is associated with the selected message thread;
determine that the selected message thread has been flagged as silenced using the flag stored in the non-transitory media;
override a currently-enabled notification setting to prevent a receipt notification pertaining to new incoming electronic messages associated with the selected message thread from being activated; and
display the new incoming electronic message in an inbox together with any message thread not flagged as silenced, while silencing any further notifications pertaining to receipt of the new incoming electronic message, wherein the new incoming message thread flagged as silenced is displayed in the inbox in a different manner than any message thread not flagged as silenced.
Such an approach is applicable to the situation where incoming messages related to the same matter are grouped into one or more message threads. A user can select to silence a message thread. Once a message thread has been silenced, the user will no longer receive notifications of new messages added to the thread. SUch an approach obviously can offer great convenience to the user.
Blackberry alleges that Facebook seized on their success and demand for consumer messaging platforms featuring BlackBerry’s innovative features and functionalities, and have developed and released their respective infringing messaging applications that incorporate and unlawfully utilize BlackBerry’s patented technologies.
Time will tell how things progress.

Popular posts from this blog

Surprising Uses for Oobleck

Image
Oobleck is a common name for a non-Newtonian fluid comprising cornstarch and water. Named after a substance humorously described in Dr. Seuss’s classic children’s story, Bartholomew and the Ooblek, the cornstarch and water concoction is frequently used in children’s science classes as a fun way to learn about fluid mechanics. You may have fond memories, yourself, of playing with oobleck as a youth. Oobleck behaves as a fluid when touched gently, but becomes hard as a solid when hit with great velocity. For example, a person could run across a swimming pool of oobleck without getting their feet wet. However, if a person stood still on the oobleck, then they would slowly sink. Because oobleck is a children’s plaything and because of its simple recipe (cornstarch and water), one may be surprised to learn that inventors have attempted to patent serious industrial uses for the material. As an example, one current patent application, US 2015/0016885 (now abandoned), is for a system of fi...
Read more

Dispensing with the Formalities: Ex Parte Quayle Actions

Image
Checking my email after work one day, I was greeted with some unfortunate news: the application I was prosecuting had received yet another Office action.   Frustrated, I couldn’t resist skimming the substance of the rejection.   After all, like any patent practitioner, I thought my arguments were pretty irrefutable.   The news only got worse… or so it appeared.   The Office action was something called an “ Ex Parte Quayle action.”   Having never received one of these actions, I started mentally preparing myself to pull out the MPEP and research some arcane rejection. To my surprise, I didn’t find myself knee-deep in case law the following day.   Ex Parte Quayle actions, while somewhat inconvenient, are far from insurmountable.   In short, an Ex Parte Quayle action or “Quayle action” is issued when an application has objections remaining as to formal matters, but is otherwise allowable.   Accordingly, the mailing of these actions close...
Read more

Adaptive Headlight IP

Image
The recent Infrastructure bill signed into law by President Biden affects many things, but one aspect that affects the automotive world is adaptive headlights.  As noted by Jalopnik puts it somewhat crudely, this means “our headlights will suck way less” (link to https://jalopnik.com/finally-our-headlights-will-suck-way-less-1848067412 ). But with this sudden change, adaptive headlights in the US may be in for a particular messy IP situation since many companies may have considered it was not necessary to protect their adaptive headlight innovations in the US because of the 50-year old rule preventing such technology. Recent patents in the field from applicants such as Lumileds and Arex indicate that smaller players and startups may be able to break into the market which is expected to explode in the next few years once the final rules are implemented.  For those in the industry that have typically avoided US patent filings in the adaptive headlamp area, they may want to r...
Read more