Bonum Certa Men Certa

BlackBerry Has Turned Into a Patents and Licensing Company

How long before BlackBerry is nothing but a pile of old patents?

BlackBerrySummary: The Canadian company that made fairly reputable phones early in this century is left with nothing but the power to sue other companies -- a power to which it increasingly gravitates

IT'S KIND of sad to see what BlackBerry has turned into. Over the past few years we wrote about a dozen articles about how, having dominated the market of corporate phones for a while (about a decade or more ago), it rapidly turned into something worse than useless. It became a patent parasite that files lawsuits in Texas (not even Nokia has gone that rogue).



"It became a patent parasite that files lawsuits in Texas (not even Nokia has gone that rogue)."BlackBerry isn't our enemy of choice or anything remotely like that. In fact, BlackBerry has embraced Android and thus Linux. It's trying to reinvent itself, but each time it fails it just falls back on patent litigation and squeezing of the 'portfolio'. This is why we always advise against patent maximalism, no matter how supposedly benevolent the patent holder may be (at the time).

A few days ago IP3 had this press release issued to speak of a "collaborative patent buying program." This is a patent trolls-feeding program -- one that the likes of BlackBerry might be tempted to set a foot on.

"This is a patent trolls-feeding program -- one that the likes of BlackBerry might be tempted to set a foot on."Several days ago BlackBerry made the news again. No, it cannot sell anything anymore, but it makes secret patent deals instead (and never mind the fact that it sues Android OEMs in Texas). This from CrackBerry is the first article we found on the subject. "In a rather quick and straight to the point press release," it stated, "BlackBerry has now announced they have entered into a patent license agreement with Timex Group. The agreement includes on-going royalty payments from Timex to BlackBerry but other terms of the agreement have been kept confidential."

A while later we managed to find the original. This press release says BlackBerry speaks of "on-going royalty payments". It added very little to that and just said that "financial structure of the deal includes on-going royalty payments from Connecticut-based Timex to BlackBerry. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential."

"What's noteworthy here is that BlackBerry does not make the product. It's just licensing patents."This was soon followed by a lot more coverage, some as recent as today [1, 2, 3, 4]. It's about a branded "Android Smartwatch", according to speculations like these, unlike simple edits of the press release.

What's noteworthy here is that BlackBerry does not make the product. It's just licensing patents. Is this the future of BlackBerry? We already know that it partly gave up on some of its phone ambitions, but what happens if BlackBerry does nothing but tax other companies?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025
Microsoft Isn't on the Map in USSR
To them, it's either Google or Yandex
In Central America Windows Became a Small Force
These are countries where Windows used to have well over 95% of the "market"
What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before)
resist, do not capitulate
Site May be Even Faster Now
It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail)
People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?
It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations)
We're only getting started
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society
It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025