BlackBerry was once the leading mobile phone brands in the 2010s. Today, the company has forgone making mobile devices and has since focused on creating software solutions for businesses. Despite the shift from hardware to software, the company’s vast body of intellectual property (with an estimate of 38,000 patents in its library) remains relevant up to this day. It’s no surprise then that other companies are looking to purchase this treasure trove of ideas and patents to apply to their own devices.
One of those companies is Huawei, and reports say that the company has acquired around 90 of BlackBerry’s patents, most of which are security-related, as confirmed by a company spokesperson. The acquisition includes patents on basic functionality like how to present text, depending on the orientation of the phone, and how is GPS data obtained, apart from the security-related patents.
This transaction on patents in the United States was a small one, and not under any arrangements both BlackBerry and Huawei have under the Canadian government – where BlackBerry is originated from. Observers have questioned the sale of patents since Huawei has raised some national security concerns from some of Canada’s allies.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen is keen on realizing the value of its vast body of intellectual property it has developed. So even if we won’t see a BlackBerry looking phone, chances are, the possibility of newer smartphones adopting BlackBerry-made services or features is not far from possible.
