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Title    Brydge Sues Kickstarter for Selling iPad Keyboard It Claims is a Clone
Date    Monday October 14 2019, @05:18PM
Author    Fnord666
Topic   
from the interesting-approach dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/10/14/0348209

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for AnonymousCoward

Brydge sues Kickstarter for selling iPad keyboard it claims is a clone

iPad keyboard maker Brydge is suing over a very similar-looking competitor called Libra. The lawsuit targets an alleged creator of the device, but it also goes after Kickstarter for hosting a crowdfunding campaign in support of the Libra keyboard.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a federal court in New York, accuses the company it believes is Libra's creator, OGadget, of violating a patent owned by Brydge. That patent covers the key features that make a Brydge keyboard work: primarily, a U-shaped hinge that's able to rotate the keyboard open and closed like a laptop when it's attached to something like an iPad.

[...]"To see something as brazen as this launch on Kickstarter ... honestly, it's a bit of a kick in the face to our staff tirelessly building the reputation we've built," Nick Smith, CEO and co-founder of Brydge, tells The Verge.

Brydge wants the court to block all sales of the Libra keyboard, which would include removing the crowdfunding campaign from Kickstarter. It's seeking punitive damages for the alleged patent violation, too.

[...]In its lawsuit, Brydge includes a series of photos showing side-by-side similarities between the two devices, from their hinges to their overall design. While Smith says Brydge also has design patents protecting its keyboards, this lawsuit only focuses on the functional elements that make the keyboard attachments work, with a heavy focus on the hinge.

The Libra keyboard does have one major difference, though: it has a built-in trackpad, whereas Brydge doesn't include a trackpad on any of its iPad products. To make the two devices look more alike, the lawsuit includes photos of an unreleased prototype Brydge keyboard with a trackpad on it.

Smith says Brydge is weeks away from beginning to manufacture its own iPad keyboard with a built-in trackpad. Brydge hopes to start sales in January or February, though production will be limited to no more than 4,000 units at first. Smith says the initial launch will be branded as a "beta," in large part because he wants to make sure customers understand that the trackpad's features are limited because only basic mouse features are available in iPadOS.

"We don't want to be putting ourselves out there as great, but the iPad experience isn't amazing," Smith says of the mouse features that were added to iPadOS last month. The "beta" launch will let interested customers use the product "knowing iPadOS will improve."

[...]Kickstarter will remove projects over patent violations, according to a copyright help page that a spokesperson sent to The Verge. The company relies on court findings of infringement, though, and Brydge may not have that until long after the Libra campaign wraps up. Suing Kickstarter directly seems to be meant to make a takedown happen faster. Kickstarter's spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.


Original Submission

Links

  1. "upstart" - https://soylentnews.org/~upstart/
  2. "Brydge sues Kickstarter for selling iPad keyboard it claims is a clone" - https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/10/20906948/brydge-lawsuit-kickstarter-libra-ipad-keyboard-patent-infringement-lawsuit
  3. "Brydge" - https://www.brydge.com/products/brydge-for-ipad-pro-2018
  4. "a very similar-looking competitor" - https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/10/9/20906031/ipad-pro-keyboard-with-trackpad-libra-review
  5. "a crowdfunding campaign" - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/libra-keyboard/libra-turns-your-ipad-pro-into-a-macbook
  6. "lawsuit" - https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19273493/123115972678.0.pdf
  7. "a patent" - http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=9,069,527.PN.&OS=PN/9,069,527&RS=PN/9,069,527
  8. "only basic mouse features are available" - https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/25/18743993/ipad-mouse-ipad-os-how-to
  9. "were added to iPadOS last month" - https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20898883/ipados-review-13-apple-features-multitasking-sidecar-browser-bugs-computer
  10. "a copyright help page" - https://www.kickstarter.com/help/copyright
  11. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=36809

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