On Thursday of last week, U.S. District Judge William Orrick upheld an injunction he had issued against Typo Products LLC back in March. Typo had sought relief from the injunction arguing it had introduced a new keyboard that doesn’t infringe on BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s patents.
However, Judge Orrick denied Typo’s motion, saying in his ruling that the introduction of a “new keyboard isn’t grounds for lifting the preliminary injunction.”
Typo Products was co-founded by well-known entertainment personality Ryan Seacrest. The company sells a keyboard designed to clip onto Apple iPhones.
Blackberry can argue Typo violated preliminary injunction
Judge Orrick also ruled that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has the legal right to try to prove that Typo has violated the preliminary injunction. In his ruling he said, “BlackBerry has raised significant questions suggesting that Typo’s sales to foreign retailers after the injunction went into effect…violated the preliminary injunction.”
Typo Products’ lawyers had argued that the firm had not violated the terms of the preliminary injunction given that the keyboards in question were “sold and delivered entirely outside of the United States and were not or intended to be sold in the United States,” according to the decision.
Blackberry’s initial complaint
Back in early 2013,BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) alleged in a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California that Typo Products keyboard for the iPhone infringed on a number of its patents. The Canadian smartphone maker and software firm argued that several of the design features of Typo’s keypad were highly derivative of features that they owned the intellectual property rights to, and that the company would suffer significant harm if Typo was allowed to sell the infringing products.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) shares are trading up three cents at $9.97 as of 9:58 AM ET Monday.
