12.02.17
Qualcomm, BlackBerry and Nokia Are Being Reduced to Mere Patent Trolls Without Any Products, Only Patents
Summary: A roundup of legal action in the domain of mobile phones and other mobile devices; a growing wave of patent-assertion activity is observed, led by companies that no longer make any devices (they do patent licensing instead)
THE world of mobile devices is rife with surveillance and patents. A lot of hardware patents are still valid because of the age of such devices. As for software patents, many of these exist too. They may not be valid, but some got granted and are due to be tested properly in a court.
“The world of mobile devices is rife with surveillance and patents.”Qualcomm is a bully with hardware patents and software patents. Qualcomm hardly makes anything and it is so financially dependent on patent ‘protection’ money that it’s willing to do this [1, 2] to Apple. “The dispute between Apple and Qualcomm over patents is part of a wide-ranging legal war between the two companies.”
“The other two cases are civil patent infringement lawsuits,” says the report. We’ve written about this dispute many times before. But it’s not just Qualcomm that’s playing this game. Nokia too is running out of market share and all it seems interested in right now is ‘protection’ money (e.g. from Apple and now BlackBerry).
“Don’t forget that BlackBerry too is increasingly turning to litigation (and/or threat thereof) to grab any money it can before the patents expire and the company declares its seemingly inevitable bankruptcy.”BlackBerry is going down fast. Its revenue completely collapsed in just a few years and after 3 decades (the company is a lot older than people care to realise) it looks like the end is nigh.
“BlackBerry to pay Nokia $137 million in payment dispute,” a very recent report said. To quote: “Canada’s BlackBerry has been ordered to pay Nokia $137 million by an international court in a payment dispute, but the Canadian company said it would continue to pursue a separate claim over patent infringement.”
“What good are patents when exploited by a company that no longer creates anything?”Don’t forget that BlackBerry too is increasingly turning to litigation (and/or threat thereof) to grab any money it can before the patents expire and the company declares its seemingly inevitable bankruptcy.
If patents were supposed to spur innovation in this area, how come news is dominated by calls for embargo, extortion and so on? What good are patents when exploited by a company that no longer creates anything? Or barely anything. What is the societal benefit? █
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