Beleaguered former mobile phone manufacturer Blackberry has filed a lawsuit against Snapchat, alleging that it breached six of its mobile app patents.

The Register reports that the patents relate to a number of popular Snapchat features including Snap Map and Snap Ads and, according to Blackberry, were stolen from the once popular BBM messenger service.

"By the time Defendant released the first (and simplest) version of its messaging app, BlackBerry had already invented most of the technologically innovative messaging application functionalities at issue in this action," BlackBerry claimed.

"Some of these innovations were already being utilized by users of BlackBerry’s smartphones, which represented more than half of the US market in 2009 and came with BBM installed.

"This infringement has resulted in a substantial and undeserved windfall for defendant as these users drive defendant’s revenue. Defendant’s gain comes at BlackBerry’s expense, depriving BlackBerry of revenue to which it is entitled as a result of its inventions."

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The company adds that it has been in talks with Snap for over a year but has been forced to court over the latter's unwillingness to play ball.

The patents themselves read pretty broadly, so it will be down to the court to decide if Blackberry’s claims hold water.

They include a “system and method for determining action spot locations relative to the location of a mobile device”, a “handheld electronic device and associated method providing time data in a messaging environment”, “previewing a new event on a small screen device” and “system and method for pushing information to a mobile device”.

Blackberry, which sold the rights to its phone manufacturing business late last year, has already successfully pursued patent claims against Cisco, Blu Products and Avaya Holdings.