Facebook is facing a lawsuit from BlackBerry for infringing a messaging technology patent in a Los Angeles Federal Court. The lawsuit points out Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram for using instant messaging. To make it clear, BlackBerry has filed the lawsuit and not TCL, who is making BlackBerry-branded handsets since 2016.
CNET reports that BlackBerry filed the lawsuit after “several years of dialogue” with Facebook. “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,” said BlackBerry.
We don’t have the complete details behind the lawsuit, but it seems that BlackBerry is suing Facebook over the messaging patients it holds on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), which is a messaging system that was very popular among BlackBerry fans. The messaging service allowed users to send and receive texts and images without using the standard messaging rates. Frankly, it was in many ways the early version of what we see now in iMessage and WhatsApp.
