BlackBerry Awarded $815 Million in Arbitration Case Against Qualcomm (cnbc.com)

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BlackBerry Awarded $815 Million in Arbitration Case Against Qualcomm (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday April 12, 2017 @02:40AM from the big-win dept.

BlackBerry, the former smartphone maker, was awarded $814.9m in an arbitration decision against Qualcomm over a dispute relating to royalty payments. The two companies entered into arbitration talks in February about Qualcomm's "agreement to cap certain royalties applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a license agreement between the parties," BlackBerry said in a statement. From a report: BlackBerry argued that it was overpaying Qualcomm in royalty payments. Last April, BlackBerry and Qualcomm entered discussions to settle the dispute and analyze an existing "agreement to cap certain royalties applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a license agreement between the two parties." Despite the dispute, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Wednesday that the companies "continue to be valued technology partners." He said BlackBerry will continue to collaborate with Qualcomm, specifically for security in the auto industry and in application-specific integrated circuits.

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So... by MightyMartian · 2017-04-12 02:45 · Score: 0, Troll

So, much as some of us suspected, BB's future is going to be in IP lawsuits.

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The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
1. Re:So... by bws111 · 2017-04-12 03:06 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  It was not 'an IP lawsuit', it was a suit about overpayments.
2. Re:So... by MightyMartian · 2017-04-12 03:23 · Score: 1
  
  It was a royalty overpayment suit, hence an IP suit.
  
  --
  The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
3. Re:So... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2017-04-12 03:32 · Score: 3
  
  I don't disagree with those suspicions on BB's future revenue sources; but this particular spat involves BB trying to reduce they amount they were paying Qualcomm, so while the favorable judgement means they get a payment now, the net flow of money is from BB to Qualcomm, just with a dispute about how large it should be. It is conveivable that they could 'patent troll' while still paying the other guy(if, say, they used some combination of threats to get Qualcomm parts well below the usual price; but still had to pay something for them); but unless this royalty adjustment is astonishingly good, it seems more like an attempt to beat back Qualcomm's own...enthusiastic...deployment of IP claims.
  
  Now, since BB barely sells actual products anymore; this big exciting payout is likely to be hard to repeat; and then they'll come out trolling; but this specific case against Qualcomm looks like part of the general industry backlash against the exciting business of cellular modem patents. Qualcomm has had some antitrust trouble in multiple venues, is in court with several customers, and generally seems to have made themselves unpopular of late.
4. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-12 03:38 · Score: 0
  
  It was money THEY were overpaying.
Remember kids... by __aaclcg7560 · 2017-04-12 02:53 · Score: 0

When you ultimately fail at being an industry leader become a patent troll.
1. Re:Remember kids... by Minupla · 2017-04-12 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  BlackBerry said Wednesday it has been awarded a preliminary $814.9 million in royalty overpayments made to Qualcomm.
  If so it's a novel approach to being a patent troll, pay a company too much for their patents and then get some of it back... I wish more trolls would be so foolish.
  Methinks the troll descriptor doesn't apply in this case. If there's any patent trolling involved it was Qualcomm overcharging for theirs. But overall it just sounds like the sort of thing that happens between two companies legitimately licensing each other IP rights.
  Min
  
  --
  On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
2. Re:Remember kids... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-12 03:05 · Score: 0
  
  The settlement has nothing to do with patents. It's related to overpayment of royalties to Qualcomm. Read the article before spitting out stupidities.
3. Re:Remember kids... by __aaclcg7560 · 2017-04-12 03:07 · Score: 1
  
  Read the article before spitting out stupidities.
  This is Slashdot. You must be new around here.
4. Re:Remember kids... by __aaclcg7560 · 2017-04-12 03:14 · Score: 1
  
  Methinks the troll descriptor doesn't apply in this case.
  The last thing I read about BlackBerry was that were becoming a patent troll company. Then again, they did come out with a new keyboard phone, Blackberry KEYone, that looks interesting.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFCAU0Y0jzc
5. Re:Remember kids... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2017-04-12 03:36 · Score: 1
  
  Do you know what you pay 'royalties' on? Patents.
  
  This case isn't about BB's patents(except in that access to some of them, in lieu of cash, might have been part of the royalties paid to Qualcomm); but you wouldn't have much of a royalties fight without some patents involved(in this industry; were these book publishers or authors, 'royalties' would imply copyrights; but aside from baseband code and drivers of very dubious quality, Qualcomm's IP reserves are largely patents).
6. Re:Remember kids... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-12 04:28 · Score: 0
  
  Companies are strange. If you think you are paying too much... well don't write them a check. It's not like Qualcomm just can mug them and take the money. They can sue in return, but that's about it.
7. Re: Remember kids... by SirSlud · 2017-04-12 05:51 · Score: 1
  
  You pay royalties on patents you're using to build and sell stuff. Is building and selling stuff using technoligy you're licensing patent trolling? The mental gymnastics required ....
  
  --
  "Old man yells at systemd"
8. Re:Remember kids... by zlives · 2017-04-12 06:36 · Score: 1
  
  ummm, i had underestimated the power of ignorance.
9. Re:Remember kids... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-12 06:45 · Score: 0
  
  KeyOne is being released by Blackberry Mobile, not Blackberry. A different company that was spun off from Blackberry (formerly Research in Motion) Blackberry Mobile is the hardware handset manufacturer since Blackberry doesn't make phones anymore but is a software company. They are in real time systems software such as QNX in medical instruments and control systems, and the software in millions of automobiles world wide (including Ford).
  Blackberry still does all the software for the KeyOne hardened Android distro and apps. The KeyOne was the last phone design in house at Blackberry.
  They also license their software to an Indonesian company that make the Blackberry Aurora phone in Indonesian markets.
10. Re:Remember kids... by __aaclcg7560 · 2017-04-12 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  ummm, i had underestimated the power of ignorance.
  This is Slashdot. You must be new around here.
B-O-N-E-R-S boners BoNeRs BONERS b_o_N-e-R_s by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-12 03:02 · Score: 0

bonnnnnneeerrrssss
Just In Time by sdinfoserv · 2017-04-12 03:35 · Score: 1

To cover Blackberry's 2017 Q1 loss of $669M.
1. Re: Just In Time by Anonymous Coward · 2017-04-12 04:22 · Score: 0
  
  So they turned a profit? Hmmmm might be the time to buy some stock. I envision some happy conference calls this quarter.
  xD
2. Re:Just In Time by zlives · 2017-04-12 06:37 · Score: 2
  
  its nice to see them on the + side for once :)
Blackberry Who? by Chas · 2017-04-12 08:35 · Score: 0

Oh! Aren't they that company that completely pissed away their complete ownership of the mobile market by refusing to remain relevant?

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Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
22 comments in 24 hours by LostMyBeaver · 2017-04-13 02:22 · Score: 1

need I say more about BB?