The Varying Shapes of Beverage Bottles and Distinct Vehicle Designs: The varying shapes of beverage bottles or the distinct designs of Audi and Jaguar vehicles often prompt curiosity. The reason behind these differences is frequently tied to Design Registration, a legal mechanism governed by The Designs Act, 2000.

Case Study: BlackBerry vs Typo Products
On January 3, 2014, BlackBerry Ltd. initiated a legal action against Typo Products LLC in the Northern District Court of California. The case concerned the alleged design infringement of BlackBerry’s renowned QWERTY keyboard. BlackBerry claimed that Typo’s keyboard, designed to snap onto an iPhone and mimic the BlackBerry keyboard, violated U.S. Design Patent No. D685,775 and U.S. Patent No. 7,629,964.

The court granted BlackBerry a preliminary injunction, which prohibited Typo Products from selling the infringing keyboard. Despite this, Typo Products continued to market the keyboard internationally and promoted it, in direct violation of the court’s order. As a result, Typo was fined USD 860,000 and ordered to pay attorney’s fees and other court costs for contempt of court.

In response, Typo released a new version of the keyboard, named ‘Typo 2,’ which it claimed did not infringe the injunction. However, BlackBerry filed a new lawsuit, alleging continued infringement of its design patents. As of June 1, 2015, BlackBerry reached a settlement with Typo Products, which required Typo to permanently cease selling keyboards for smartphones and mobile phones with screens smaller than 7.9 inches worldwide.