Facebook is suing BlackBerry for patent infringement related to voice-messaging technology, in the latest round of the legal battle between the two companies.
In a 118-page complaint filed filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court, Facebook accused BlackBerry of stealing its voice messaging technology, among other patented processes. Facebook is seeking unspecified damages for infringement of six patents.
In addition to the voice-messaging patent, Facebook cites infringement of patented technology that improves how a mobile device delivers graphics, video and audio and another that centralises tracking and analysis of GPS data.
In its patent infringement complaint, Facebook provides a summary of each invention which details where each invention originated. Further, while Facebook identifies BlackBerry products and services which infringe upon the patents in suit, Facebook doesn’t identify any of its own services which practice the technologies covered by the patents.
Most of the patents that Facebook is brandishing were acquired from other companies and the complaint highlights six patents.
- 8,429,231 – Voice instant messaging based on intellectual property acquired by Facebook in 2012 that was originally developed by America Online (AOL).
- 7,567,575 – Personalised multimedia services using a mobile service platform, originally developed by AT&T
- 6,356,841 – G.P.S. management system, relating to to US telecoms company BellSouth.
- 7,228,432 – Method and apparatus for providing security for a computer system, which Facebook acquired from Hewlett-Packard.
- 6,744,759 – System and method for providing user-configured telephone service in a data network telephony system, which was acquired by Facebook from HP, but had originally been filed by networking hardware company 3Com.
- 7,302,698 – Operation of trusted state in a computing platform, coming from HP.
Back in March of this year, BlackBerry filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook and its companies WhatsApp and Instagram for their use of instant messaging.
The lawsuit alleged that Facebook “created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry’s innovations, 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.”
A U.S. Judge has already trimmed that lawsuit.
Facebook v BlackBerry In Court Motion
[better-wp-embedder width=”100%” height=”400px” download=”logged-in” download-text=”” attachment_id=”106226″ /]
