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BlackBerry's iconic keyboard patent has expired
(mobilesyrup.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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Checks notes, that's not what happened, no. Tons of phones had/have keyboards.
Nokia had quite a few, the E-line (e.g E6, E63, E71) being some of the most "blackberry" looking ones.
BB didn't have a patent on the idea of a keyboard on a phone, but they did (do?) have a design patent for one of the most optimal layouts and dancing around it was tricky and risky. Or you can just be Typo, directly rip off a BB keyboard, and act surprised when you get sued.
As someone earlier mentioned, unihertz has a few models with physical keyboards.
i looked into those myself. it's worth knowing that they're several Android updates behind, so the devices could be less secure.
I had an old htc vertical folder with a leather cased keyboard. If I had a version of that with modern hardware, that would be my jam.
Palm had front keyboards