Some of Avaya Inc.’s products are potentially under fire from BlackBerry for copyright infringement.
The Canadian smartphone maker has filed lawsuits in the U.S. against the unified communications solution provider for allegedly violating eight patents related to video and speech decoding, message display, location tracking, cryptography, call routing and more.
In its filing, BlackBerry is demanding royalties; ARS Technica reports that these patents originate from 1998 to 2011.
The smartphone maker, which has been pushing into the Android market in the past year despite waning smartphone sales, has been turning to enterprise mobility management solutions for income. In its earnings call in May, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said the company was now in “patent licensing mode,” meaning the struggling company plans to turn to its more than 38,000 patents for revenue.
According to BlackBerry, the list of copyright infringements include:
- No. 9,143,801 and No. 8,964,849, two systems used for encoding and decoding video data for “significant maps”. Blackberry claimed the systems were used in Avaya’s Scopia XT video conferencing product.
- No. 8,116,739, a method of displaying data and voice messages. Blackberry said it was used in the Avaya Communicator for iPad application.
- No. 8,886,212, a method of launching a GPS within an instant messaging application. Blackberry said it was used in the Avaya one-X mobile application used for communication.
- No. 8,688,439, a method to decode speech. Blackberry said it had been used in a series of Avaya’s IP deskphones.
- No. 7,440,561, a method of establishing a connection with multiple devices that use the same telephone number. Avaya has used a similar system in multiple products, according to Blackberry.
- No. 8,554,218, a system used to route outbound telephone calls through an enterprise communication network.
- No. 7,372,961, a method used to generate a cryptographic public key.
“BlackBerry has demonstrated a commitment to innovation, including through its investments in research and development, which have totalled more than $5.5 billion over the past five years,” the company claimed in its complaint. “Avaya infringes multiple BlackBerry patents by using, without authorization, BlackBerry’s proprietary technology in a number of Avaya’s commercial products and services across its product lines.”
The document further stated that it had notified Avaya of its alleged infringement back in December of last year.