When a company called Typo unveiled a physical keyboard accessory for the Apple iPhone 5 and 5S back in late 2013, BlackBerry was quick to sue the company for patent infringements, alleging that the startup backed by Ryan Seacrest “blatantly copied” its keyboard. U.S. District Judge William Orrick today imposed a court order barring further sales of the US$99 iPhone case after deciding earlier this week that BlackBerry’s infringement claims were likely valid. It did not help that Typo was unable to put up a strong challenge against BlackBerry’s claims.
Typo had argued that BlackBerry was trying to monopolize the keyboard market and that many keyboards shared the same design characteristics. Judge Orrick dismissed the argument, saying, “If the consumer can look at this and say this product is ripping off BlackBerry and knows it’s not a BlackBerry product, how does that make a difference in my analysis?”
For its part, BlackBerry argued that continued sales of the Typoe keyboard would “irreparably” harm it by causing it to lose sales and creating consumer confusion. It now appears that Typo will indeed lose the case and may have to permanently stop selling the Typo keyboard.
Source : Bloomberg