The blackBerry’s keyboard will not be infringed upon! U.S. District Judge William Orrick has said in a ruling that the Smartphone maker, BlackBerry Ltd., has won a court order barring Ryan Seacrest’s Typo Products, LLC from selling a $99 iPhone case, after convincing the judge that Typo is, according to Bloomberg News, infringing its patents. Typo’s product is an external case much like the Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s with an integrated physical keyboard, and infringes patents and designs used in the Q10, a keyboard-equipped Smartphone BlackBerry released last year. Kevin Johnson, BlackBerry’s lawyer, said at a March 21 hearing that the keyboards for BlackBerry’s Q10 Smartphone are “unmistakable.”
Steve Zipperstein -BlackBerry’s General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer, had reported in a statement, “This is a blatant infringement against the BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard, and we will vigorously protect our intellectual property against any company that attempts to copy our unique design.” According to Reuters, Typo had not sufficiently challenged the patents in question.
Typo LLC was founded by entrepreneur Laurence Hallier and the radio and TV producer and host of “American Idol, Ryan Seacrest. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, wrote that “BlackBerry has convincingly shown that BlackBerry’s keyboard designs are a key driver of demand and goodwill for BlackBerry phones.”
BlackBerry has lost a great deal of business to Apple and Google Inc.’s Android devices. In an e-mailed statement Typo reported, according to Bloomberg News that, the company will “continue to make and sell innovative products that busy people can’t live without.”
The injunction prohibits Typo from the sale of its keyboard, meaning due to the similarities between Typo’s product and the iPhone case, Typo LLC is barred from selling the keyboard case. According to I4u.com, Judge William Orrick also added that Typo LLC did not provide a strong enough statement to prove its case.
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