BlackBerry Asks Court To Halt Typo Sales

To borrow a phrase from the video game Mortal Kombat, it has begun. According to CIO, BlackBerry is asking a court to stop sales of the Typo keyboard for iPhone:

BlackBerry alleges infringement of two patents: U.S. Design Patent 685,775 and U.S. Patent 7,629,964. The former covers the design elements of a “handheld electronic device” and the latter “an electronic device with keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs.”

BlackBerry is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to prohibit Typo from “making, using, offering to sell, or selling within the United States, or importing into the United States, the Typo Keyboard.”

“Typo’s blatant copying of BlackBerry’s keyboard presents an imminent threat of irreparable harm to BlackBerry, and that threat is magnified in combination with the significant market power of the iPhone,” BlackBerry said in a proposed motion to the court.

As it stands, pre-orders of the Typo keyboard have sold out. So I am not sure if this will stop those orders from getting out. But if this request is granted, it’s a safe bet that the next batch of keyboards won’t be going anywhere.

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