Eatoni has also sued T-Mobile, which distributes the devices, according to reports.
According to the patent abstract, US patent number 6,885,317 covers:
“methods for the selection of ambiguous codes from the classes of strongly-touch-typable ambiguous codes and substantially optimal ambiguous codes for touch-typable devices such as computers, telephones, pagers, personal digital assistants, smart cards, television set-top devices and other information appliances, given design constraints such as the size, shape, and computational capacity of the device, the typical uses of the device, and conventional constraints such as respect of alphabetic ordering or Qwerty ordering.”
The 7100 series includes SureType keyboard technology, integrating a traditional phone keypad and a Qwerty-style keyboard. The device also has “intuitive” software, which allows it to learn as you type.
This combination, according to Eatoni, is in breach of its patent.
It has asked the District Court for the Northern District of Texas to grant an injunction against the manufacture and sale of the devices.
Meanwhile, RIM is still battling holding company NTP Inc, over claims that certain RIM products were infringing on patents covering a method of using radio frequency wireless communications in e-mail systems.