Blackberry Sues Twitter For Infringing on its Mobile Messaging Patents

Remember Blackberry? Kids may not see much of their phones today or remember their previous name, but they were once a brand for the rich. Blackberry phones were for the rich and powerful and it is amazing what has changed in the past decade.

Well today, we are seeing reports of a squabble of an unlikely pair between Blackberry and Twitter.

According to Reuters, Blackberry Ltd filed a patent infringement lawsuit yesterday with the US District Court in Los Angeles that accuses Twitter of illegally using its technology in its mobile messaging applications that were developed by it.

The lawsuit said that Twitter compensated for being a ‘relative latecomer’ to mobile messaging by co-opting Blackberry’s inventions. The ‘inventions’ in this case include services like the main Twitter app and Twitter Ads, which apparently infringe six of their patents.

The lawsuit also said that Twitter “succeeded in diverting consumers away from BlackBerry’s products and services” and by misappropriating features that made BlackBerry a “critical and commercial success in the first place.”

As you may know, back in the day, BlackBerry Messenger was one of the coolest ways to chat with other people online. You needed a BlackBerry phone for starters and you were locked into that ecosystem. Telcos even had special ‘BlackBerry’ data bundles that enabled you to use BlackBerry Messenger uninterrupted for a month.

Last year, BlackBerry sued Facebook and Snapchat for infringement on their patents that co-opted parts of their mobile messaging tech, which is very similar to what they are doing with Twitter now.