BlackBerry wins German patent injunctions against Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram over four (most likely invalid!) software patents

Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), a Munich-based newspaper, reported yesterday evening on a set of Germany-wide patent injunctions that BlackBerry--once a smartphone maker, now basically a patent troll--just obtained against Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram subsidiaries over a total of four different patents covering chat features.

The injunction is provisionally enforceable. If BlackBerry posts a bond or makes a deposit, it can enforce the injunctions at this stage, though Facebook can appeal to the Munich Higher Regional Court and is, in parallel, challenging the validity of those patents before the Federal Patent Court of Germany. But Facebook has already told the media that the affected services--Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram--wouldn't go out of service in Germany: workarounds have been prepared, so the related features would have to be removed.

BlackBerry sued Facebook (with a focus on Facebook Messenger rather than the social media stream) and those two subsidiaries over five different patents, which I listed earlier this year and will list again further below.

The Munich I Regional Court has now handed down injunctions over four of the five patents. These are the five BlackBerry patents-in-suit, some of which they claim to be infringed by only one or two of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and some of which they claim are infringed by all three (note that the injunctions BlackBerry just won relate to patents #1, #2, #3, and #5 on the list, but not #4, as explained further below):

1. EP1734728 on a "method and apparatus for switching between concurrent messaging sessions" (first hearing held on 01/10/2019)

   accused functionality: showing two chat histories in parallel

2. EP1633114 on a "system and method for maintaining on a handheld electronic device information that is substantially current and is readily available to a user" (first hearing held on 01/17/2019)

   accused functionality: automatically identifying user profiles containing partly identical data

3. EP1746790 on a "method of sharing an Instant Messaging history" (I attended and reported on the related first hearing)

   accused functionality: sharing messages from the chat history

4. EP1540495 on a "method and system for displaying group chat sessions on wireless mobile terminals" (first hearing: 02/28/2019)

   accused functionality: displaying chat history while text is being edited

5. EP2339799 on an "IM contact list entry as a game in progress designate" (first hearing: 02/28/2019)

   accused functionality: chatting during gameplay

BlackBerry has so far prevailed on all of them but the fourth one ("method and system for displaying group chat sessions on wireless mobile terminals"), over which even the Munich court had sufficient validity doubts that BlackBerry felt forced to further narrow the claims during trial. In that case, no immediate decision was possible (for due process reasons), and instead, there will be another trial over that one on March 12, 2020. If BlackBerry persuades the court not to stay, then it may win again.

I am stunned that the court didn't stay all five cases over serious doubts concerning the validity of those patents. When I looked at the claims of the patents-in-suit earlier this year, I quickly concluded that they'd all be highly likely to be annulled by the Federal Patent Court of Germany (which also happens to be based in Munich, which is sort of the Capital of the Patent Movement, at least for Europe). That's partly because software as such isn't patent-eligible in Europe. While the courts rarely ever invalidate a patent as a whole on that basis, they do exclude any non-technical features from their novelty and non-obviousness analysis--and it's hard to see how anything novel or inventive could be found in those patent claims that isn't just software stuff without a technical effect. I already operated a chat service (as part of an online gaming network) in the 1990s and wrote an IRC client in 2000, so I know a lot of the prior art from hands-on experience.

What I have been able to find out is that BlackBerry, represented by Quinn Emanuel (a great firm that has not so great clients at times), had to narrow multiple patent claims-in-suit during the infringement proceedings just to address the court's concerns over non-novelty. There are two problem with German patent infringement courts in the context to grant or deny a stay pending a nullity action. First, they apply an unreasonably high standard (and the "guru" from the Dusseldorf appeals court who has been promoting that high standard for many years more aggressively and fanatically than anyone else recently made dozens of employees of a small company lose their jobs--with Quinn Emanuel again on the enforcing side--over a patent subsequently held invalid). Second--though in many cases that's even more important than the standard--they take only non-novelty (anticipation) arguments seriously and largely refuse to consider obviousness contentions (lack of inventive step) for no good reason (if they can rule on infringement without appointing expert witnesses, they certainly could also assess the existence of absence of an inventive step, but they just don't want to).

The Munich I Regional Court orders stays in only about 10% of all cases, and I have the impression the number is far below 10% for this year. That's a huge problem considering that the vast majority of all patents in this industry turn out invalid once they're challenged before the Federal Patent Court. In fact, not a single one of all the patents asserted in the cases I covered in detail survived a nullity trial (but many never reached that point due to earlier settlements).

I hope Facebook will keep on fighting. They do appear to be determined not to feed the troll. By striking down these patents, even if it takes years, they can teach the German patent judiciary--except for Mannheim, where you find by far the most responsible German patent infringement court--an important lesson. The federal government is drafting a reform bill, and reform is needed so badly that it will likely be enacted even before Facebook's nullity actions against BlackBerry are resolved.

If your company, too, would like to push for patent injunction reform in Germany, please contact me at fosspatents@gmail.com. I'm already in touch with many companies from a variety of industries--and of all sizes--who have enough of this crap resulting from a broken system, and as a former European Campaigner of the Year (2005; an award I won against Bono and which went to a pope and to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in other years) I know a thing or two about patent legislation. I'm convinced a more eBay v. MercExchange-like regime in Germany is achievable, and far more cases than now should get stayed in the future.

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BlackBerry suing Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram subsidiaries over five European software patents in Munich

As the former director of the European NoSoftwarePatents campaign I always find it shocking what kinds of patents the European Patent Office (EPO) grants despite the exclusion of "programs for computers as such" from the scope of patentable inventions according to Article 52 of the European Patent Convention (EPC).

Post-grant reviews often do away with those patents, but rarely ever on the basis of Art. 52 EPC per se. What typically happens is that the Federal Patent Court of Germany or other courts of competent jurisdiction categorize some claim limitations as "non-technical" and purposely ignore them in their novelty or inventiveness analysis. Whatever little remains then is often anticipated by, or at the very least obvious over, the prior art. But, unfortunately, efficiency gains (reduced data volumes, increased processing speeds, economic use of screen space etc.) often serve as an excuse for circumventing Art. 52 EPC.

Tomorrow the Munich I Regional Court will hold a first hearing in one of eight BlackBerry v. Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram cases over a total of five different patents--all of them pure software patents. Patents on "programs for computers as such."

In March 2018, BlackBerry sued Facebook as well as its WhatsApp and Instagram subsidiaries in the Central District of California (= L.A., though geographically it would be SoCal). Facebook's VP of Litigation and Deputy General Counsel, Paul Grewal, issued the following statement:

"Blackberry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, Blackberry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight."

The fact that Facebook still isn't paying BlackBerry any royalties is a good sign. Don't feed the failed-business-turned-troll!

Mr. Grewal used to serve as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of California. Over the years this blog mentioned him quite often, most notably in connection with Apple v. Samsung discovery and (un)sealing disputes as well as his mediation effort with Oracle and Google, a case that he realized just had to go to trial.

While there has been some media coverage of BlackBerry's U.S. litigation against Facebook (and a countersuit by Facebook), I haven't been able to google any articles on the eight Munich lawsuits, even though a couple of first hearings have already taken place there. This is the list of patents and first hearing dates:

1. EP1734728 on a "method and apparatus for switching between concurrent messaging sessions" (first hearing held on 01/10/2019)

   accused functionality: showing two chat histories in parallel

2. EP1633114 on a "system and method for maintaining on a handheld electronic device information that is substantially current and is readily available to a user" (first hearing held on 01/17/2019)

   accused functionality: automatically identifying user profiles containing partly identical data

3. EP1746790 on a "method of sharing an Instant Messaging history" (first hearing: tomorrow = 02/14/2019)

   accused functionality: sharing messages from the chat history

4. EP1540495 on a "method and system for displaying group chat sessions on wireless mobile terminals" (first hearing: 02/28/2019)

   accused functionality: displaying chat history while text is being edited

5. EP2339799 on an "IM contact list entry as a game in progress designate" (first hearing: 02/28/2019)

   accused functionality: chatting during gameplay

This is another series of Munich cases in which Quinn Emanuel is asserting patents on behalf of a patent monetization-focused client against a Freshfields client. QE is representing Qualcomm against Apple in a series of German infringement cases, and Freshfields is defending Apple. Here, QE is suing Freshfields client Facebook on BlackBerry's behalf.

The BlackBerry company was named Research In Motion (RIM) when it filed the related patent applications. The irony is that "Research In Motion" is structurally similar to the names of many patent trolls, but the company was actually focused on making products at the time and itself the target of lawsuits brought by trolls, with the NTP case (settled for $612.5 million) being the most well-known example, while it's now named BlackBerry, but far more interested in patent monetization while its namesake products became pretty irrelevant a long time ago, thanks to the iPhone and Android.

I was in frequent contact with RIM in 2006, shortly after the costly NTP settlement that happened on the eve of what would most likely have been a U.S. injunction. I remember that they were the first company (of many) to tell me about the problems they had with Qualcomm, and that they were really happy about the Supreme Court's eBay v. MercExchange ruling (on patent injunctions) that year. But times have changed, and now they're asserting software patents against Facebook and its two most famous subsidiaries as if Article 52 of the European Patent Convention didn't exist.

In addition to suing companies like Facebook directly, BlackBerry engages in privateering. Last week, PatentlyApple reported on a declaratory judgment action brought by Apple against a troll named "Fundamental Innovation Systems" that wants (but hopefully won't get any) license fees from Apple over a dozen former RIM/BlackBerry patents.

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BlackBerry afraid of transfer of its trollish patent lawsuit against Facebook to Northern California

The company that used to be called Research In Motion is now named BlackBerry. It has always had the wrong kind of name at the given time: Research In Motion would be a typical name for a patent troll (second-best to "Innovations in Motion", more often than not with a demonym such as "American" placed in front) as those organizations try to position themselves as innovative, research-centric businesses with a view to jury trials when in reality they usually aren't. But it had that name when it was making those BlackBerry devices. Now that it has the name of the product, it's no longer making phones and becoming ever more of a patent troll. Admittedly, if I could go back in time, this blog here would have a different name, too: I didn't initially envision it to become so focused on smartphone patent and competition issues, whether or not they involve open-source software ("FOSS" stands for "Free and Open Source Software"). This blog may undergo a name change later this year or next.

BlackBerry has filed a patent infringement complaint against Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp subsidiaries (this post continues below the document):

BlackBerry v Facebook by Russell Brandom on Scribd

For the patents-in-suit, let me refer you to Ars Technica's article. I agree with Timothy B. Lee that the patents are extremely broad. In fact, they're so abstract and generic that many or even all of them might die an Alice death before the case even goes to trial.

I have an observation to share that other commentators don't seem to have focused on so far. The "jurisdiction and venue" section (paragraphs 25 to 36) is unusually long. In many other patent complaints it spans only a very few--and especially short--paragraphs. Here, it's almost epic.

Without a scintilla of doubt, the reason for BlackBerry's preemptive defense of its venue choice--the Central District of California (that's Greater L.A.), while Facebook is headquartered in the Northern District--is last year's Supreme Court recent decision in TC Heartland vs. Kraft Foods, which reinstated an earlier ruling (thereby overruling many years of Federal Circuit precedent) according to which "[a]s applied to domestic corporations, 'reside[nce]' in §1400(b) refers only to the State of incorporation" despite potentially broader definitions of "residency" in §1391. TC Heartland was viewed as a blow to the Eastern District of Texas, where patent trolls usually prefer to sue: it's easier now for defendants to get cases transferred out of that district.

BlackBerry's lawyers from Quinn Emanuel--a great firm though it has very much positionied itself as an anti-Apple firm (representing not only legitimate Android device makers but also antitrust violators and trolls against Apple) and apparently now also as an anti-Facebook firm (it already represented Yahoo against Facebook)--go to unusual lengths to justify the venue choice. Paragraph 34 of the complaint points to a 35,000 sq. ft. L.A. office as a "regular and established place of business" (though Facebook's new Northern California headquarters will have 1.75 million sq. ft.), and footnote 4 says there are at least 17 LinkedIn profiles of "people in this District that are dually employed by both Facebook and one of WhatsApp or Instagram." The complaint also points to "network effects" between Facebook's various services in order to establish as close a connection as possible between that L.A. Facebook office and the two Facebook subsidaries accused of infringement alongside their patent company.

BlackBerry also lists an Orange Country address for an in-house counsel, but it's actually a Canadian company and traditionally had most of its U.S. employees in Texas, though this may have changed.

It's all too obvious that BlackBerry doesn't want the case to be transferred to the Northern District of California. It appears to be realistic that it won't be a cakewalk to keep it in Southern California, but at least it wants to try. So it tries to satisfy the second part of §1400b:

"(b) Any civil action for patent infringement may be brought in the judicial district where the defendant resides, or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business."

It doesn't appear that Facebook filed a declaratory judgment action in the Northern District of California before BlackBerry brought its offensive assertions. But Facebook will still try to get the case transferred to San Jose, and that's where the question of whether Instagram and WhatsApp have a "regular and established place of business" in L.A. or whether it's just Facebook (the parent company)--and whether the parent company's presence is sufficient and whether there are dually-employeed people etc.-- will come up. I'm sure that any relevant witnesses on the Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp side will be based in Northern California.

Why is BlackBerry afraid of Northern California? Obviously, for the troll that the company increasingly is, the Eastern District of Texas would have been an obvious choice. But presumably BlackBerry didn't want to try such a long shot in light of TC Heartland. I can think of three reasons for which BlackBerry would like to stay out of the Northern District:

1. Juries in that district tend to be rather tech-savvy. They might be underwhelmed by BlackBerry's abstract patents (unless those are held invalid under Alice as a matter of law) and be more inclined to identify overlaps between those "inventions" and the prior art.

2. Relative to its economic and societal stature, Facebook has relatively few employees, but still enough that Northern California jurors may know Facebook employees.

3. Paul Grewal. The former U.S. Magistrate Judge from the Northern District of California (whose opinions were always extremely well-written, not just in my opinion but that of other litigation watchers, too) became Facebook's deputy general counsel in charge of litigation. He's also quoted in Facebook's response, according to which the social network company intends to fight back (I very much hope so: please, Facebook, don't feed the troll even if you can cheaply get rid of the case!). BlackBerry may be afraid of Mr. Grewal still having a unique relationship with some of the judges in that district.

Just one other observation. BlackBerry is seeking an injunction. RIM (as it was called at the time) faced the prospect of an injunction in 2005 when it was being sued by a patent troll named NTP, and had to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars. The following year, the Supreme Court's famous eBay v. MercExchange ruling on patent injunctions came down. Under eBay, irreparable harm is key, and whatever little of an operating business (security software) BlackBerry has left is not really in a competitive relationship with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Also, remedies will only have to be discussed if and when BlackBerry prevails on the merits, and that's a big "if."

BlackBerry's approach to patent injunctions has changed. I remember a meeting with them between their almost-shutdown and eBay. One of their in-house counsel told me that they would only pursue an injunction in extreme situations such as an employee leaving the company and stealing some of their code. None of that is at issue now. They've simply become more of a troll themselves.

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