BlackBerry Sues Typo… Again

… for violating BlackBerry’s patents

BlackBerry, the ailing smartphone maker is resuscitating a legal battle against the startup, Typo Innovations.

Typo Innovations, co-founded by Ryan Seacrest and Laurence Hallier in 2013, designs and manufactures human interface devices and mobile accessories.

Their keyboard (which includes a phone case) for the iPhone was positioned as providing a 2-in-1 solution to two major needs of iPhone owners — provide protection to the device while adding the absolute minimum possible bulk to the device, as well provide a sorely-missed physical keyboard. Well, useful as it may perhaps be, the Typo Keyboard Case became the eye of a legal storm at BlackBerry’s behest. Typo Innovations was made to pay almost a million dollars to BlackBerry and was banned from selling the case.

BlackBerry won a preliminary injunction in September 2013, which included a ban on Typo Innovations from selling the case any further. Typo Innovations didn’t heed, and was then ordered to pay BlackBerry nearly USD 1 million for continuing to sell its original Typo keyboard case after it had been hit with a sales ban.

A year or so later, Typo Innovations released the Typo 2 Keyboard and case for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and iPhone 6. The Typo 2 too gives iPhones a physical keyboard below the touch screens and on the lines of the keyboard loved by many former BlackBerry users.

BlackBerry wasn’t the least amused and has now filed a second lawsuit against Typo Innovations asserting that the second­ generation keyboard is still violating BlackBerry’s patents, including the patents related to design, backlighting and typing automation technologies. In its complaint, BlackBerry states that it wants a ban on the sales of the new Typo 2 Keyboard cases too.

Typo Innovations meanwhile claims that the new Typo 2 Keyboard case has been redesigned by groundup and its new look and certain functionality do not make it not look like the traditional BlackBerry keyboard.

Prima facie, the Typo 2’s keyboard does have dissimilarities with the BlackBerry keyboard, however many aspects like the lettering, spacing of keys, backlighting still share significant similarities (read: inspiration and/or influence) for BlackBerry’s liking. The way BlackBerry sees it, the Typo 2 being a “minimally modified derivative version” of the original Typo keyboard, continues to allegedly violate some BlackBerry’s patents.

With the two lawsuits pending against Typo, from an erstwhile mobile device giant, the ball is in Typo’s court on whether they continue to flirt with danger, or actually do live up to their self-decreed title of “Innovations”.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.