Avaya’s products are under fire from BlackBerry.
The Canadian smartphone maker has filed lawsuits in the US against the video conferencing solution maker for allegedly violating eight patents related to video and speech decoding, message display, location tracking, cryptography, call routing and more.
ARS Technica reports that these patents originate from 1998 all the way to 2011.
In its filing, BlackBerry is demanding royalties.
“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.
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.
According to ARS Technica, at an earnings call in May, BlackBerry chief executive John Chen said the company was now in “patent licensing mode,” meaning the struggling company plans to turn to its patents for revenue.
It has amassed some 38,000 patents.