BlackBerry Files Lawsuit Against Nokia Over Patents

According to a report published by Bloomberg, BlackBerry is apparently suing Nokia, claiming that the Finnish phone brand is in violation of as many as 11 of BlackBerry’s patents in various offerings to major US mobile operators such as AT&T and T-Mobile. The lawsuit was reportedly filed in federal court in the state of Delaware.

In its filing, BlackBerry went on to detail how Nokia infringed on a number of BlackBerry owned patents in networking equipment, like its Flexi Multiradio base stations, network controllers, and Liquid radio software. The Canadian phone brand is said to seeking monetary compensation from Nokia, but is yet to give a specific amount. 

Once a powerhouse name in mobile like Nokia, BlackBerry is now putting most of its attention in developing software and licensing, after failing to keep up with the Samsungs and Apples of the world. In August of last year, the company had filed a 105 page patent lawsuit against networking giant Avaya. A couple of weeks later, BlackBerry had then filed a lawsuit against Blu Products, claiming that 15 of its patents have been violated by Blu.

A few of the patents involved in BlackBerry lawsuit against Nokia were once the property of Nortel Networks. Around six years ago, Nortel sold around 6,000 patents to a consortium owned by BlackBerry, Apple, and Microsoft (among many other tech firms) for a sum of $4.5 billion. An analysis provided by Elysium Digital more than a couple of years ago, however, reveals that some of these patents will be expiring in the next few months. In Nokia’s case, BlackBerry is not necessarily trying to prevent the company from using patented BlackBerry tech, it just needs to license them fairly. The patents being disputed cover key parts of the 3GPP mobile telecoms standard.

BlackBerry’s new focus on software development and licensing seems to be paying off. In its most recent quarter, the company recorded adjusted earnings at a penny per share, which is an improvement over the $0.02 per share loss projected by several industry watchers. Moreover, it also upgraded its outlook for this year to break even from its previous guidance of a $0.05 per share loss.

Interestingly, BlackBerry and Nokia are both former global mobile leaders who have seen better days, and are actually trying to manufacture a comeback this year. BlackBerry has launched its BlackBerry Mercury (which is powered by Android), while Nokia has also released its Nokia 6 (also running on Android).