BlackBerry patent licensing director says he has left
company
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 [October 14, 2017]
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO (Reuters) - A key attorney
executing BlackBerry Ltd's patent licensing strategy has left the
company, the second recent departure from the team tasked with making
money from the Canadian company's intellectual property.
Victor Schubert, who was a licensing director for BlackBerry, told
Reuters in a brief LinkedIn message that he was no longer with the
company. He did not say when he left or why.
Monetizing the company's intellectual property is a key part of Chief
Executive John Chen's plan for turning around the company whose revenues
have declined for six straight years as sales of its once ubiquitous
smartphones have tumbled.
Company representatives did not respond to requests for comment on
Schubert. Two switchboard operators at the Canadian company said his
name was not in a global employee directory.
News of his exit follows the recent departure of Mark Kokes, who lead
BlackBerry's overall patent strategy. Kokes last month joined a health
technology company.
Schubert joined BlackBerry in March 2015, according to his LinkedIn
profile, as the company was embarking on a major push to boost licensing
revenue.
BlackBerry is trying to persuade other companies to pay licensing
royalties to use its trove of some 40,000 global patents on technology
including operating systems, networking infrastructure, acoustics,
messaging, automotive subsystems, cybersecurity and wireless
communications.
Schubert has created and executed patent-licensing programs for at least four
companies, including BlackBerry, dating back to 1992, according to his LinkedIn
profile. It lists portfolio mining, patent valuation and negotiating patent
sales as areas of expertise.
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A Blackberry sign is seen in front of their offices on the day of
their annual general meeting for shareholders in Waterloo, Canada in
this June 23, 2015 file photo. BlackBerry posted a
bigger-than-expected fall in first quarter revenue June 23, 2016,
but forecast full-year results above market expectations.
REUTERS/Mark Blinch/Files
He was due to represent BlackBerry at a Seattle-area patent conference next
month to discuss how operating companies can make money off their intellectual
property, according to an agenda posted on the conference website in August. He
is no longer listed as a panelist.
BlackBerry disclosed it had secured royalty-bearing deals with Cisco Systems Inc
and another company that it did not name soon after Schubert joined. It also
filed patent infringement lawsuits during his tenure against Nokia and Avaya Inc
[AVXX.UL] that are ongoing.
BlackBerry on Thursday disclosed that it had settled another lawsuit, filed
against low-end Android phone manufacturer BLU Products Inc.
Both companies declined to disclose terms of the deal.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Additional reporting by Jan Wolfe in New York;
Editing by Jim Finkle and Lisa Shumaker)
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