Yup, my thoughts exactly. It would be a tough battle, and I doubt it's one that they'd expend considerable resources on. It's more than likely just a token lawsuit, designed to make a statement.
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Yup, my thoughts exactly. It would be a tough battle, and I doubt it's one that they'd expend considerable resources on. It's more than likely just a token lawsuit, designed to make a statement.
I can't see each side backing down, especially Chen. This keyboard firm may have also consulted a patent lawyer on the type of keyboard they can get away with before they started production so they will feel they have a good case. Again I'm just assuming, not saying it will happen.
Although Blackberry might regret this if Microsoft sues them for copyright infringement with the Q10 over the Nokia E61. ;)
They may have also taken a gamble that BlackBerry wouldn't spend the resources on a patent suit. The thing is, there have been quite a few keyboards offered for iPhones but none have been so close to the BlackBerry one in look and style.
You're kidding right?
Good point
Seacrest taking advantage of BlackBerry keyboard
Posted via CB10
I heard the court has already selected a jury. It will be Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson.
What is sad is that Seacrest could have turned a profit on a piece of plastic yet the "iconic" keyboard can't when attacked to a blackberry device.
Nope, earlier BB keyboards were more curved as I recall. The Q10 seems closer to the E61 to me than to earlier BBs although the E61 has a bit of curve too. Or perhaps more precisely put it seems possible to me that it is close enough for the army of lawyers sitting around in Redmond to be interested in. The flip side of course is why didn't BB sue Nokia over the E61?
thanks for the picture. It is quite telling. Personally, I don't know who would buy this contraption as the ergonomic design looks poor.
It's slightly curved, the keys themselves are a different shape, the numbers are in a different location, and aside from being qwerty, I don't see any striking resemblance. With the Typo keyboard, it's a blatant copy.... the angled keys, the frets, the straight lines..... just by looking at it, one would have assumed BlackBerry themselves made it. It looks just like the Q10 keyboard and was probably designed to do so.
The only reason they are suing is for the press, This company had little chance of making an impact....
Maybe so, maybe they can, but once you let one slide, you set a precedent that can come back to bite you should another company decide to infringe later on.
Ding! Correct. Give that poster a ceegar!
A keyboard is NOT proprietary, the look and cosmetics are. If that were the case, IBM or NEC would be suing the **** out of absolutely every computer manufacture.
What I find telling, is how the advertising video for a mere smartphone case, is better than any that Blackberry have created for their own smartphones. No wonder they want a piece of the action.
http://vimeo.com/76384667#at=0
They just got tens of millions of dollars worth of publicity because the suit was filed. It was on all of the tech blogs and on CNN just now. The timing of a press release on a slow news Friday can't be coincidence. I'm sure Blackberry is just looking for a licensing deal. Chen just came on board so I doubt he's too sentimental about the keyboard if there's a product out there that will generate licensing fees, especially, if the cash from a lawsuit wouldn't come in time to help the company rather than just shareholders or some acquiring company five years down the road.
QWERTY keyboard is standard fair. But once a company copies the sculpted keys and straight metal fret design then it's blatant copying. So yes, I suspected this was coming to Seacrest et al.
It will be interesting if Typo settles out of court. They should and let both BBRY and Typo reap the financial rewards. Fanbois should order now as the price is going up to $129 to cover BBRY's patent royalty.
Can you or anyone else post the outcome of the kik lawsuit? If not how do you know it helped kik?
Posted via CB10
Tons of tech blogs covered the lawsuit and Kik grew rapidly to the point that it has more users than the app it copied now. Kik didn't disappear like BlackBerry would have liked for them to. No one knows the details for certain, but it sure doesn't seem to have hurt Kik all that much.
Attachment 235763Since no product has actually shipped, BlackBerry cannot sue for financial damages.
They should have waited until the actual (and final design) of the keyboard actually shipped.
The Kik lawsuit was too late, and that's why this lawsuit will be effective in killing Typo. The only settlement at this point us BlackBerry getting something greater than 50%....at least it should be.
Posted via CB10
Typo Products has replied:
“We are aware of the lawsuit that Blackberry filed today against Typo Products. Although we respect Blackberry and its intellectual property, we believe that Blackberry’s claims against Typo lack merit and we intend to defend the case vigorously. We are excited about our innovative keyboard design, which is the culmination of years of development and research. The Typo keyboard has garnered an overwhelmingly positive response from the public. We are also looking forward to our product launch at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week and remain on track to begin shipping pre-orders at the end of January.”
BlackBerry and Kik Interactive come to terms, settlement ends all legal action | CrackBerry.com
Long story short, case was dismissed but it was DRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWN out.