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BlackBerry won a court order today that prohibited Typo from selling its $99 QWERTY keyboard for the iPhone.
The fight is not yet over for BlackBerry. Despite a whopping $5.9 billion annual loss and revenues plummeting 64 percent, the iconic smartphone manufacturer, now under the leadership of John Chen, managed to knock down rising startup Typo Products LLC.
Typo makes and sells physical keyboards that can be attached to Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S. Co-founded by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, Typo Products announced its $99 keyboard last year.
BlackBerry immediately took notice and filed a lawsuit against the startup in January this year. BlackBerry alleged that Typo infringed its own patent, adding that Typo blatantly copied BlackBerry’s keyboard.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick said in a ruling today that the BlackBerry maker established a likelihood of proving that Typo infringed its patents. Judge Orrick added that Typo didn’t provide a strong statement to prove its case.
Typo quipped that the preliminary injunction, which could lead to a temporary sales ban, will put the young company out of business. But Judge Orrick dismissed Typo’s response.
“BlackBerry is pleased that its motion for a preliminary injunction against Typo Products LLC was granted. This ruling will help prevent further injury to BlackBerry from Typo’s blatant theft of our patented keyboard technology,” BlackBerry told Reuters.
Typo has yet to issue an official statement.
We are proud of our keyboard & will protect it. “#BlackBerry wins court order barring sales of #Typo” http://t.co/5x56g42iFQ— BlackBerry News (@BlackBerryNews) March 29, 2014