Snapchat prevails over Blackberry in patent suit at Fed Circ
Snapchat has secured a victory in a patent lawsuit brought by BlackBerry, at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The Federal Circuit, on December 10, issued a non-precedential decision upholding a district court ruling that four of BlackBerry’s patents were invalid and ineligible for patent protection.
In March 2018, Blackberry accused the messaging app service of infringing its patents, US numbers 8,825,084, 8,326,327,8,301,713, 8,209,634, 8,296,351, and 8,676,929 at the US District court for the District of California.
Blackberry has also sued Facebook for infringing the same patents, but this suit is still in contention.
The disputed patents cover innovations in the “mobile messaging interface for mobile devices and mobile advertising technology”.
The initial complaint outlined how in 2005, BlackBerry introduced its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application, which it claimed “revolutionised the concept of instant messaging”, and that “over the years, BlackBerry continued to develop and improve successive versions of BBM by introducing features such as GPS positioning and digital maps, connected applications, voice chat, private chat, and many other features”.
As a result, BBM has been widely downloaded and is popular among users of all platforms, including Android and iOS, said the filing.
Blackberry said that Snapchat released its application in September 2011, more than six years after BlackBerry’s release of BBM and that “by the time defendant released the first (and simplest) version of its messaging app, BlackBerry had already invented most of the technologically innovative messaging application functionalities at issue in this action”.
It further claimed that Snapchat’s infringing application and products incorporate and unlawfully apply BlackBerry’s patented technologies.
It said that Snapchat also designed, developed, tested, and used the infringing apps in and within the US.
According to BlackBerry, it provided Snapchat with “clear and unambiguous notice” that its products infringe BlackBerry’s messaging patents, through a series of letters, e-mails, a meeting and personal communications between the parties’ general counsels.
Snapchat responded with a countersuit in April 2018, in which it stated that the patents were invalid for failing to satisfy one or more of the requirements under Section 101 of the US Patent Act.
“The filing of this action by Blackberry creates an actual and justiciable controversy concerning the validity of the patents-in-suit. Snapchat is entitled to a declaratory judgment that the patents-in-suit are invalid,” said the filing.
In August 2018, the district court ruled that the patents were invalid for failing to claim any patentable subject matter. The court held that according to Alice v CLS Bank (2014), Blackberry “had failed to explain why the patent claims an element or a combination of elements that is sufficient to ensure that the patent in practice amounts to significantly more than a patent upon the ineligible concept itself”.
The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board had also separately found these patents invalid on the grounds of obviousness on November 5 2020.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
