A United States Court ruled in favor of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) last Saturday in its patent infringement lawsuit over Typo’s keyboards. A preliminary injunction against the sale of Typo’s Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone keyboards was granted in March this year after BlackBerry filed a lawsuit with the United States District Court of the Northern District of California claiming that the product infringed on one of BlackBerry’s patents.
Preliminary injunction against Typo still holds
Typo’s keyboard designed to be compatible with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone is the product that is under dispute. Earlier this year, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) filed a lawsuit against the keyboard manufacturer accusing Typo of infringing on the Canadian smartphone maker’s patents and stated that the latter had ripped off its iconic physical QWERTY keyboard. This feature endeared BlackBerry to loyal customers and helped it compete against other giants in the arena such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX:005935). A preliminary injunction was granted in favor of BlackBerry by United States District Judge William Orrick.
Typo tried to obtain a relief from this injunction after it had released a new keyboard which, according to Typo, did not infringe on BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s patents. Judge Orrick, however, denied Typo’s motion last Thursday as its argument of releasing a new keyboard does not offer enough justification for lifting the preliminary injunction.
Typo’s foreign sales now under the scanner
In his ruling, Judge Orrick also noted that the sales of Typo’s keyboards in countries other than the United States after the preliminary injunction went into place might be in violation of the same and BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has won the right to prove that Typo has committed the above mentioned violation. In its defense, Typo argued that it had not violated the terms of the preliminary injunction as the sales and delivery of the keyboards were never intended to be in the United States and were completely out of the country.