BlackBerry announced $600 million in patents for mobile devices, messaging and wireless networks

Abstract: February 1 news, local time on Monday, BlackBerry announced that it sold its legacy patents mainly related to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networks for $600 million to Canadian patent giant Catapult IP Innovations Inc.

On February 1, local time on Monday, BlackBerry announced that it would sell its legacy patents related mainly to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networks for $600 million to Canadian patent giant CatalystIP Innovations Inc.

Catapult IP Innovations Inc., based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is a special company described as a "special purpose agency established specifically to acquire BlackBerry patent assets" and will fund the transaction using loans from a consortium led by Toronto-based Third Eye Capital, which includes a Canadian pension fund. The transaction does not include patents that are critical to its core business. BlackBerry will still be licensed for the patents sold, and customers' use of its products, solutions, or services will not be affected in any way.

Catapult IP Innovations Inc. said the deal would need to meet all the regulatory conditions set out in the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act and the Canadian Investment Act, which could take up to 210 days.

It is worth mentioning that according to the information of the USPTO, in December 2020, BlackBerry sold 90 key smartphone technology patents to Huawei, but the specific transaction amount was not disclosed.

As the former mobile phone overlord, BlackBerry was once also very brilliant, and its classic full keyboard design was talked about by many users, but with the rise of Android smartphones, BlackBerry also withdrew from the mobile phone business in 2016 and shifted its focus to enterprise, Internet of Things and security software. However, it still holds a large number of mobile phone-related patents.

Editor: Xin ZhiXun - Lin Zi