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A comment on Clicks – Physical keyboard for iPhone. Parent comment

Re:Clicks – Physical keyboard for iPhone by odensc on Thursday January 04, 2024 @07:53PM (#38874343)
Visually, it looks a lot less like a copy of a BlackBerry keyboard, so that helps.

The first patent quoted in that lawsuit article has expired [1]. The second patent is still active [2], but is related to a "ramped-key keyboard" (essentially curved), which this new product is not AFAICT.

The third, a design patent [3], is still active, but would appear to only apply to a complete handheld device that includes an attached keyboard, not a separate accessory... Not a lawyer or patent expert by any means though.

I guess we'll see - none of that stops anyone from suing them.

[1]: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7629964B2/en?oq=7%2c629%...

[2]: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8162552B2/en?oq=8%2c162%...

[3]: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD685775S1/en?oq=D685%2c7...

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Re:Clicks – Physical keyboard for iPhone by dsmmcken on Thursday January 04, 2024 @10:10PM (#38875275)
Typo's keyboard was very much a copy and probably infringed on even more then was listed.

I can't think of any of their design patents this would interfere with. There's a small chance of some internal mechanical or light guide related patents, but that would be pretty unlikely. Even more unlikely would be BlackBerry having anyone around still that would even know what to look for.

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