What Year is It? Blackberry Sues Ryan Seacrest’s Tech Outfit
Let’s imagine, the year is 2007 and you are Research In Motion Limited, maker of the BlackBerry. Some computer company has just announced a new touchscreen phone. As my father now denies saying, the iPhone is not made for the business world. Don’t panic, you have at least three more years of dominance over the iPhone. But due to a myriad of reasons, not the least of which was the failure that is the BlackBerry Storm, your days are numbered. By 2011, you are restructuring and laying off employees. In 2013, you release the Q10 and change your corporate name to BlackBerry Limited, but also announce that you are open for purchase and have signed a letter of intent to sell. And in the mind of this author, who moderately follows tech news and admittedly never owned a BlackBerry, you are kaput. So imagine this author’s shock when he reads that on January 4, 2014, BlackBerry filed suit against Ryan Seacrest’s tech company, Typo Products, LLC in federal court in California. BlackBerry claims that Typo’s external case for the iPhone 5 and 5s infringes upon its patents and designs used in the Q10. BlackBerry alleges that Typo “blatantly copied BlackBerry’s keyboard.” BlackBerry’s chief legal officer stated: “We are flattered by the desire to graft our keyboard onto other smartphones, but we will not tolerate such activity without fair compensation for using our intellectual property and our technological innovations.” Typo stated that it intends to defend against BlackBerry’s claims. Perhaps this move by BlackBerry is an attempt to return to the glory years of the early 2000’s, when BlackBerry was constantly involved in patent litigation. In fact, BlackBerry is nearly as familiar with patent litigation as it is with making cell phones. Since 2000, BlackBerry been involved in patent litigation with Glenayre Electronics, Good Technology, Handspring, NTP, Xerox, Visto, Motorola, Eatoni, and Mformation.
Whatever the outcome, this lawsuit brings back a wave of nostalgia. I can only hope that Jordin Sparks and Paula Abdul will be called to testify. We’d like to see those depositions.
