Federal court levies near-$1M fine against Ryan Seacrest's 'Typo' iPhone keyboard
Typo, makers of a BlackBerry-like keyboard accessory for the iPhone, were ordered Wednesday to pay the Canadian smartphone maker $860,000 plus attorneys' fees and costs after failing to heed a sales injunction handed down last March.
BlackBerry alleges that Typo "blatantly copied" BlackBerry's keyboard.
BlackBerry filed suit against Typo --?backed by entertainment industry veteran Ryan Seacrest --?in January of last year, alleging that Typo had "blatantly copied" BlackBerry's own keyboard. BlackBerry won a sales injunction three months later, and Wednesday's fine is a result of Typo having sold some 19,000 keyboards in direct violation of that injunction, according to Reuters.
Typo has since redesigned its accessory, and the company said that Wednesday's ruling had no effect on the second-generation unit. Typo is also planning to release a version for the iPad Air, though it is unlikely to face similar trouble.
BlackBerry initially sought $2.64 million in fines, and Typo argued that any sales of its keyboard did not constitute a loss to BlackBerry. U.S. District Judge William Orrick classed Typo's arguments as "not so clever attempts to evade the court's preliminary injunction."
"The amount of sanctions awarded is only a third of what BlackBerry sought and is directly tied to additional revenue that Typo could have expected from its illegal conduct," Orrick wrote.
BlackBerry alleges that Typo "blatantly copied" BlackBerry's keyboard.
BlackBerry filed suit against Typo --?backed by entertainment industry veteran Ryan Seacrest --?in January of last year, alleging that Typo had "blatantly copied" BlackBerry's own keyboard. BlackBerry won a sales injunction three months later, and Wednesday's fine is a result of Typo having sold some 19,000 keyboards in direct violation of that injunction, according to Reuters.
Typo has since redesigned its accessory, and the company said that Wednesday's ruling had no effect on the second-generation unit. Typo is also planning to release a version for the iPad Air, though it is unlikely to face similar trouble.
BlackBerry initially sought $2.64 million in fines, and Typo argued that any sales of its keyboard did not constitute a loss to BlackBerry. U.S. District Judge William Orrick classed Typo's arguments as "not so clever attempts to evade the court's preliminary injunction."
"The amount of sanctions awarded is only a third of what BlackBerry sought and is directly tied to additional revenue that Typo could have expected from its illegal conduct," Orrick wrote.
Comments
This is still a stupid accessory since it blocks the Touch ID sensor.
But, at least BBY can keep the lights on another week or so!
I don't think the touch ID sensor is near as universally used as you might assume -- I had a Typo for my iPhone 5 before I got my iPhone 6 plus (which there is no typo keyboard for or I would have it too)...and I have to say I never once used the touch ID sensor, nor do I know anybody in my company that does...its a gimmick that I don't think is something everyone uses....and clearly for most people who get these keyboards the physical keypad is far more important that a touch sensor...
Touch ID:
Definitely there are people (you included) who don't use some great technology.
With your logic we can say that headphone jack is useless as well. People who I know use bluetooth headsets or no headsets at all.
Touch ID is there. And for those who use it - it is very useful.
I unlock my phone 50-100 times a day. I don't need to type a alpha-numeric 10 characters (required by the security policy of my company).
Touch ID saves me some time and lot's of frustration.
Touch ID is really fast and convinient.
People who don't know what touch ID is wouldn't even note that there is a highly secure password needed to unlock my phone.
It's one of the best things in the iPhone and it works really well.
I love touchID.
The iPhone 5 does not have Touch ID....
This is still a stupid accessory since it blocks the Touch ID sensor.
But, at least BBY can keep the lights on another week or so!
It's a stupid accessory, physical keyboards are a big part of why BlackBerrys are such crap.
But it's also absolutely insane that BB got a patent on a qwerty keyboard. Any patent on that keyboard should have expired well over 100 years ago. That keyboard was designed in the 1870s, and simple modifications to it should be completely patent ineligible.
The iPhone 5 does not have a touchID sensor
Words fail me. I have nothing nice to say about this post so I won't go beyond "your experience is NOT typical".
It pops the keypad up but holding my thumb on the touch ID sensor occasionally I don't even get a wiggle of the numbers. I have to put in the passcode.
I haven't found rhyme or reason when this happens.
I don't think the touch ID...
Right there you should have stopped.... The rest of your preaching wasn't worth wasting the extra electrons needed to display it.
Just speaking for myself here . . . I went from being a hardcore pass-code user to a Touch ID user, and all it took was to see that it really does work. In fact, it works 100% of the time.
Myself included. TouchID on my iP6+ has been flawless. I really didn't realize how often I was typing in a passcode until I stopped doing it. TouchID just works.... you hearing that Samsung?
www.jobs700.com
I don't think the touch ID sensor is near as universally used as you might assume -- I had a Typo for my iPhone 5 before I got my iPhone 6 plus (which there is no typo keyboard for or I would have it too)...and I have to say I never once used the touch ID sensor, nor do I know anybody in my company that does...its a gimmick that I don't think is something everyone uses....and clearly for most people who get these keyboards the physical keypad is far more important that a touch sensor...
Everyone I know uses it. It's not a gimmick and it works great. I personally don't know why people have such a problem with the touch keyboard. Works great and can access way more functions than this little keyboard.
I think it's a design patent that was infringed.
Seriously, this guy copied the look and feel of the BB keyboard even more slavishly than Samsung copied the iPhone. That's saying quite a bit right there.
They made a note of it. They wrote down "more specs."