Ajudge has declined to strike out a 'comatose' international claim despite finding an abuse of process. The Commercial Court claim, for $6.49m, was brought by mobile data company Blackberry against its South Asia licensee, Indian telecom business Optiemus Infracom, in August 2019. Since then, it has made 'little progress', Paul Stanley KC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, observed.

In BlackBerry Limited v Optiemus Infracom, the judge was ruling on an application by Optiemus to strike out the claim, which was automatically stayed in 2020 under the Civil Procedure Rules. According to the judgment, BlackBerry, maker of the once-ubiquitous handheld email device, attempted to pursue Optiemus for allegedly outstanding licensing fees. However a dispute arose over whether the claim had been correctly served in India and progress was interrupted by the Covid pandemic.

In July 2024, however, BlackBerry applied to lift the automatic stay. This was contested by Optiemus, which accused BlackBerry of engaging in a 'submarine pursuit' - lulling the Indian company into a false sense of security by giving the impression that the claim had lapsed with no further obligations. Almost all the employees with knowledge of the BlackBerry contract were no longer with the company, Optiemus said, and one key individual had died in 2021.