Following Nokia's patent infringement lawsuit in February, BlackBerry has decided to take legal action against Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, claiming that their instant messaging platforms infringe on its own protected technologies.
BlackBerry says it has been reviewing the case for a long time and decided to take legal action as Facebook uses its own intellectual property for mobile phone messages without permission.
"We have strong evidence that Facebook has infringed on our intellectual property, and after several years of dialogue, we feel obligated to our team to take appropriate action," said Sarah McKinney, a BlackBerry spokeswoman.
BlackBerry claims that certain features used by Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for instant communication are protected by its own patents, including the ability for timestamps not to appear next to each message in a thread. Additionally, BlackBerry notified Facebook about the appearance of many incoming messages in an inbox and the display of an unread message over an icon.
While Facebook initially gave no information regarding this trial, it has now decided to issue a statement, mainly to explain that it is a desperate attempt by a failing company to make money by any means.
Nokia, which was accused of using a total of 11 patents without permission, said it is exploring its options, although there is a high likelihood that the company will accept the war against BlackBerry.
"We are aware of the complaint, will study the allegations and take the necessary steps to defend our rights," a Nokia last month.
