Blackberry won a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook. This may result in WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger being unavailable to users in Germany soon.
Blackberry believes that some of Facebook's applications infringe on the company's patents. The court's preliminary verdict was in favor of Blackberry. This means that Facebook will not be able to offer German residents some of its apps in their current form.
Blackberry has failed to stay in the smartphone market, while Facebook has been successful in providing services for mobile gadgets. The source believes that it is unlikely that Blackberry intends to turn into a patent troll, but given the current situation, the company decided to extract at least some benefit.
It is worth noting that Facebook does not intend to leave the German market, losing part of the European audience. The most viable option under these circumstances is to eliminate features that infringe Blackberry patents and redesign applications to fully comply with the law.
βWe plan to adapt our products accordingly so that we can continue to offer them in Germany,β Facebook said. Given that we are talking about technical subtleties, the developers from Facebook will certainly be able to find a suitable solution in a short time. If this fails, then Facebook will have to obtain licenses to use technology, the rights to which belong to Blackberry.
It seems that ordinary users of popular Facebook applications should not worry. However, it cannot be ruled out that as a result of the redesign of applications, some familiar functions in the applications mentioned may change or disappear.
Source: 3dnews.ru