Last year, BlackBerry won a court order to stop the sales of Typo, an iPhone keyboard case that bore notable resemblance to the iconic BlackBerry keyboard. Regardless of this injunction, the company continued to sell the case outside of the United States and introduced the Typo 2 last August.
BlackBerry recently filed a complaint with the courts claiming Typo was in contempt of last year’s injunction because it sold thousands of the keyboards outside the U.S. as well as approximately 1,900 inside the United States.
The 1,900 units sold in the U.S. were distributed through a business associate and friend of CEO Laurence Hallier as part of an agreement that saw Typo transfer 4,000 units to Chris Yergensen. Yergensen sold the keyboard covers and paid Typo for the keyboards as he sold them. The remaining unsold keyboards were transferred back to Hallier after they failed to sell.
The courts ruled that though the transfer of keyboards occurred before the injunction took effect, the keyboards themselves were not paid for until after the injunction came into play and therefore this deal constituted a violation of the injunction.
BlackBerry had initially asked for close to $2.65 million plus attorneys fees. The courts ordered Typo to pay $860,000 plus attorney fees and costs incurred as a result of Typo’s contempt.
[source]United States District Court Northern District of California via Record[/source]
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