BlackBerry and Cisco sign patent deal
Telecoms company BlackBerry and technology company Cisco Systems have agreed a patent cross-licensing deal.
As part of the agreement, announced yesterday, June 23, BlackBerry will receive a fee from Cisco.
Details of the agreement, such as the fee amount and the number of patents included in the deal, have been kept confidential.
In a statement, Mark Kokes, vice president of intellectual property and licensing at BlackBerry, said that the agreement would allow the companies to focus on “innovation and technical cooperation” and would avoid the need for potential patent disputes.
Dan Lang, vice president of intellectual property at Cisco, added: “Cross-licensing is an effective way for technology companies to assure freedom of operation.”
Cisco has been involved in cross-licensing deals before. Last year, WIPR reported that the company had also entered into a cross-licensing deal with Google.
Steven Rubin, partner at law firm Moritt Hock & Hamroff in New York, told WIPR that, although there have been examples of this type of agreement before, this deal is notable because it includes BlackBerry, which he said “has lost a lot of ground in the cell phone market”.
“While blackberry has lost significant market share, they still have valuable patents and that is an asset that can still be leveraged—as is evidenced by this deal. The portfolio is so good, that the balance is in favour of blackberry as they will receive a fee.”
Rubin added: “Deals like this are great because they show that patents can be valued without resorting to litigation—litigation being a poor method for monetising patents.”
