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2 June 2015Patents

BlackBerry and Typo settle keyboard patent battle

Smart phone maker BlackBerry has settled its dispute with Typo Products over patents and trade dress related to handheld keyboards.

Under the terms of the settlement, Typo will stop selling keyboards for smart phones and other devices with screens smaller than 7.9 inches, a BlackBerry statement confirmed.

It can continue selling keyboards for larger devices.

BlackBerry and Typo have been battling out the dispute, which centres on Typo’s iPhone Keyboard Case, for more than a year after BlackBerry twice sued Typo for alleged infringement of intellectual property protecting its phone keyboard.

In its first complaint, filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of California in January 2014, BlackBerry said that it had “devoted substantial resources and research efforts to the development of ... the keyboard” and described its designs as a “significant market differentiator”.

It argued that Typo infringed its keyboard design as “embodied in ... BlackBerry’s Q10 smart phone”.

Typo’s case, which integrates a physical keyboard, infringed one design patent, two utility patents and a trade dress registration, according to BlackBerry.

BlackBerry added that Typo’s co-founder, US TV presenter Ryan Seacrest, had previously acknowledged in an interview that the product infringed the BlackBerry keyboard.

An injunction was then issued against Typo to prevent it from selling any further infringing models.

Typo then launched another product, called the Typo 2, which prompted BlackBerry to take action again at the same district court.

The settlement brings both lawsuits to a close.

Typo had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

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