Blackberry has sold 90 patents related to smartphone technology to Huawei. This also means
that the Canadian company is stepping down from the mobile phone business.
The
Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, reported that it confirmed the transfer
of intellectual property through records from the United States Patent Office
(USPTO), and that BlackBerry's CFO also confirmed this on an investor call. The
BlackBerry was once a leader in the smartphone market, but at the time such
devices were enterprise tools and enterprise customers appreciated the
handset's security and management features and other features such as the
QWERTY keyboard.
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| ▲ pixabay.com |
BlackBerry Huawei patent deal
However,
despite high praise from enterprises, the company, then known as RIM (Research
In Motion Limited, formerly BlackBerry), was unable to adapt to changing market
trends. Apple and Android manufacturers have been able to provide more
desirable handsets and weaken BlackBerry's strengths in terms of security. The
problem was that it couldn't launch a more modern operating system than before
2013, and eventually it withdrew from the market in 2016.
Since
then, BlackBerry has focused on providing mobile services and security, but CEO
John Chen wants to realize the enormous value of his intellectual property. It
is estimated that there are 38,000 patents in BlackBerry's library, and with
this in mind, the 90 patents sold to Huawei are only a small fraction. However,
some of the sold patents include innovative core technologies developed during
the company's heyday, including 1) the technology to display text and images on
devices according to physical orientation and location tagging of photos
(picture 2 below). But other things are Blackberry's traditional technologies
for security, such as 2) sharing data to a group of devices (pictured below).
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| ▲ wipsglobal.com example for (1) US patent 9367097 which titled; System and method for adjusting presentation of text and images on an electric device according to an orientation of the device |
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| ▲ wipsglobal.com example for (2) US patent 9917702 which titled; System and method for managing items in a list shared by a group of mobile devices |
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| ▲ wipsglobal.com list of patent that has been sold to Huawei |
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