BlackBerry files lawsuit against Ryan Seacrest’s company over Typo keyboard case

BlackBerry has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the company co-founded by Ryan Seacrest that makes a keyboard case for the iPhone.

On Friday, BlackBerry filed a lawsuit against Typo Products LLC, a company that makes a slip-on keyboard designed to fit the iPhone 5 and 5S.

The company Los Angeles-based company was founded by entrepreneur Laurence Hallier and television personality Ryan Seacrest. The company’s flagship product, the “Typo Keyboard,” was conceived to make typing on the iPhone quicker and less prone to typos.

Now the company might be wishing it went a little slower. The keyboard, BlackBerry alleges, violates the company’s intellectual property rights for copying BlackBerry’s own keyboard designs.

Instead of developing its own design, “Typo chose to copy BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard design as embodied in, among others, BlackBerry’s Q10 smartphone,” the lawsuit alleges, which was filed Friday in the U.S. district court in the Northern District of California.

“This is a blatant infringement against BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard, and we will vigorously protect our intellectual property against any company that attempts to copy our unique design,” said Steve Zipperstein, BlackBerry’s general counsel and chief legal officer, in a statement.

The suit seeks a trial by jury to obtain compensation for the copyright violation.

On Saturday, Typo issued a statement in response to the suit: “We are aware of the lawsuit that Blackberry filed against Typo Products. Although we respect Blackberry and its intellectual property, we believe that Blackberrys claims against Typo lack merit and we intend to defend the case vigorously. We are excited about our innovative keyboard design, which is the culmination of years of development and research.”  

The statement added that the company plans to go ahead with its launch at International CES in Las Vegas and is on track to begin shipping pre-orders at the end of January.