Something interesting popped up in the US Patent and Trademark Office website (as always): a cool new BlackBerry device from Research in Motion. The patent involves a new BlackBerry concept with a sliding QWERTY keypad and a trackball for navigation.

The patent's abstract tells about the two orientations in which the device can be held: when the QWERTY keypad is being used, the handheld should be held in a landscape orientation, since the device's width is more than its height. On the other hand, the BlackBerry is to be held in a portrait orientation when the keyboard is stowed away.

The device already looks sweet in its illustration, and we certainly do hope that no patent infringement lawsuits would spring up to mar the possibility of this device getting launched for public consumption.