BlackBerry Wins Court Order Barring Sales by Typo - Bloomberg
BlackBerry Ltd. won a court order barring Ryan Seacrests Typo Products LLC from selling a $99 iPhone case after convincing a judge that Typo is probably infringing its patents.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said in a ruling today that BlackBerry is likely to prevail on its infringement claims and that Typo hasnt made a strong challenge to the validity of the smartphone makers patents. Orrick also dismissed Typos concern that a temporary sales ban may put the company out of business.
In January, BlackBerry sued the Los Angeles company founded by the radio and TV producer and host of American Idol, alleging that Typos external case for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s infringes BlackBerrys design and copies its inventions. BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, sought a court order blocking sales of the case while the lawsuit proceeds.
The similarities between Typos iPhone case, which has a keypad that attaches to the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s to allow users to easily tap out messages, and the keyboard for BlackBerrys Q10 smartphone are unmistakable, Kevin Johnson, BlackBerrys lawyer, said at a March 21 hearing. BlackBerry would be irreparably harmed by lost sales of its smartphones and consumer confusion over the devices unless the sales are stopped, BlackBerry said.
BlackBerry has lost business to Apple and Google Inc.s Android devices. Its share of the global smartphone market tumbled to just 1.7 percent in the third quarter from 4.1 percent a year earlier, according to research firm IDC.
Typo denied infringing patents or copying the BlackBerry keyboard design.
BlackBerrys problems are not related to Typo, Olivier Taillieu, a Typo attorney, said at the March 21 hearing. We dont believe Typo is the reason for any loss of sales to BlackBerry.
The case is BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY) v. Typo Products LLC, 14-00023, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Gullo in federal court in San Francisco at
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at
Peter Blumberg
Source: bloomberg.com