Defendant
12 cases as defendant.
BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) is a Canadian software company headquartered at 2200 University Avenue East, Waterloo, Ontario. It was founded in 1984 as Research in Motion by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin and rebranded BlackBerry in 2013. It is publicly listed on the NYSE and TSX and has no parent company. Headcount is in the low thousands (public profiles place it in the 1,000–5,000 band); revenue was $534.9M in FY2025 (ended Feb. 28, 2025) and roughly $549M in FY2026, per company filings.
Operations run through three divisions. QNX supplies real-time operating systems, hypervisors and ISO 26262 functional-safety software to automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, plus BlackBerry Radar telematics, Certicom cryptography and BlackBerry IVY. Secure Communications sells enterprise and government mobility/resilience products — BlackBerry UEM, SecuSUITE (via Secusmart) and AtHoc critical-event management. Licensing monetizes the retained patent portfolio (roughly $22–24M annually). The legacy handset business was exited, and the Cylance endpoint-security business was sold to Arctic Wolf in February 2025.
Litigation posture: an active two-way litigant — 12 tracked cases as plaintiff and 12 as defendant. As plaintiff it sued Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram, Snap and Twitter in the Central District of California (2018–2019) and Avaya in the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division (2016), asserting messaging, user-interface and mapping patents. Notably, every tracked defendant-side appearance is a USPTO PTAB proceeding — inter partes reviews filed by Facebook and Snap against BlackBerry patents — not a district court infringement suit, so the company is not absorbing a wave of NPE-style complaints. Its suits were filed in California, not the Eastern District of Texas.
Context: the Facebook/WhatsApp dispute settled confidentially in early 2021; the Snap matter went against BlackBerry at the Federal Circuit in December 2020, which affirmed invalidity of four patents under Alice. In January 2022 BlackBerry agreed to sell substantially all non-core patents — mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking — to Catapult IP Innovations, a Delaware special-purpose vehicle, for $600M with a license-back; the transaction was long delayed and BlackBerry said it was exploring alternatives.
Snap Inc. petitioned for inter partes review against BlackBerry Limited concerning U.S. Patent No. 8,296,351. The Board denied institution on July 13, 2020, and also denied joinder to IPR2019-00941.
Facebook filed an inter partes review challenging claims 1, 4-6, 8, 9, and 12-14 of U.S. Patent No. 8,677,250. The Board instituted review on November 14, 2019, and issued a final written decision on November 12, 2020, finding that the petitioner had not shown the challenged claims unpatentable.
Inter partes review petition by Facebook, Inc., with WhatsApp Inc. listed as a related petitioner, against BlackBerry Limited concerning U.S. Patent No. 8,296,351. The Board issued a Final Written Decision; the proceeding terminated December 1, 2020.
Snap filed an IPR against U.S. 8,209,634. After institution, the proceeding was terminated due to settlement by order Nov. 26, 2019.
Snap petitioned for inter partes review of the '713 patent. The Board instituted review on October 8, 2019, but the proceeding was terminated by settlement on November 26, 2019, without a final written decision.
Petitioners Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp filed an IPR against U.S. 8,209,634. The Board issued an institution decision on Oct. 9, 2019, declining to institute review on the merits.
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp petitioned for inter partes review of the '713 patent. The Board instituted review and issued a final written decision on October 6, 2020, terminating the proceeding; an IPR certificate issued October 6, 2021.
Petition for inter partes review of the '236 patent; not instituted on the merits.
Snap Inc. filed an inter partes review petition against BlackBerry Limited challenging claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 15 of U.S. Patent No. 8,825,084. The Board issued a Final Written Decision, but the narrative does not confirm which claims were cancelled or upheld.
Snap petitioned for inter partes review of U.S. 8,326,327. The Board instituted review on September 4, 2019, and issued a Final Written Decision on September 1, 2020; BlackBerry appealed. The narrative states the claim-by-claim result was not confirmed.
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp petitioned for inter partes review of U.S. 9,349,120; the PTAB issued a Final Written Decision.
Inter partes review concerning U.S. Patent No. 8,296,351. Petitioner was not confirmed; the proceeding was not instituted on the merits.