Ryan Seacrest had started a iPhone physical keyboard company, Typo I think, and got sued so bad he abandoned the whole thing. How will these people get around it?
typo pretty blatantly ripped off the unique shape of the blackberry keys that makes them easier to hit than normal mini keyboards. i'm not a fan of the patent system, but that seems like an actual novel thing that blackberry legitimately invented.
Doubt they have a patent for "keyboard on phones" (I had a nokia with a physical keyboard). Was probably because it was very similar to blackberrys keyboard (really looks like they just stuck a blackberry keyboard on an iphone) while this one seems more different.
I'd guess those patents would have expired by now. They only last 20 years, and you must file them within 12 months of a product coming to market including that invention or you forfeit the right to patent it. So any patents related to the 7000 line or earlier would have expired, and I don't see anything about this keyboard that is similar to later BB keyboards.
