Typo, the iPhone keyboard case that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Blackberry keyboard, is being permanently withdrawn from sale as part of a lawsuit settlement.
Typo Products, co-founded by TV personality Ryan Seacrest, launched the original version of the keyboard early last year. Blackberry wasted no time in suing the company for alleged patent infringement, winning an injunction against its sale and later collecting $860k in damages.
Undeterred, Typo released a modified version of the keyboard which it claimed didn’t infringe Blackberry’s patents. Blackberry disagreed and took Typo back to court again. Blackberry says that case has now been settled, with Typo agreeing to permanently withdraw its iPhone keyboard cases from sale.
The settlement refers to keyboards for devices “smaller than 7.9 inches,” meaning Typo is free to continue selling its iPad mini model.
Via the WSJ
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Great study in utter stupidity on all fronts.
I’m still amazed there are people who still want a slow to use inefficient physical keyboard. Get with the times already, jeez.
The physical keyboard you can type without looking at the keyboard and know that the buttons are depressed. that feedback helps. The androids haptic feedback helps the same problem with silent image buttons like the iPhone
I type all the time on my iPhone without ever looking down at the keyboard or even the screen. I look down at the end to make sure everything is typed correctly and 98% of the time it’s perfect. Then I hit “Send” and sleep comfortably knowing that I’ll never have to use a physical keyboard on a mobile phone again.
It’s great to see Blackberry actually bringing in some money.
If Blackberry was a little less timid, they’d now produce these for all popular smartphones.
Blackberry has lost the war. It is time for them to regroup. It isn’t like they’ll lose future sales.
Agreed. Instead of a lawsuit why not make money of licensing, in the long run it would bring in far more than the $860k.
Is anyone really surprised?
I guess I will have to take it off my wish list at Amazon… nutz