BlackBerry Sues Ryan Seacrest-Backed Typo Keyboard for Patent Infringement

When iPhone accessory startup Typo Products announced its physical keyboard, the company garnered inordinate media attention because one of its founding investors was American Idol host and all-around celebrity, Ryan Seacrest. Now that attention is coming back to haunt the little startup as BlackBerry has decided to sue for patent infringement.

Typo's iPhone keyboard case slips on the iPhone 5 or 5s with a physical keyboard at the bottom for faster typing and fewer errors. It's not a revolutionary idea, and it's not the only product of its kind on the market.

But get Ryan Seacrest involved, and suddenly, as Typo's website brags, the product gets seen on CNN, Variety, Engadget, ABC News, and many other sites.

 And that's a recipe for a moneymaking success for the $99 product, which Typo was planning on making available for pre-order this January.

BlackBerry Ltd., right now the opposite of a moneymaking success, is looking to put the breaks on Typo's iPhone keyboard. According to CNET, the company said on Friday that it had filed a lawsuit in a California court against the Los Angeles-based Typo Products for violating patents on their iconic BlackBerry physical keyboard design.

"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 the company's release. "From the beginning, BlackBerry has always focused on offering an exceptional typing experience that combines a great design with ergonomic excellence. We are flattered by the desire to graft our keyboard onto other smartphones, but we will not tolerate such activity without fair compensation for using our intellectual property and our technological innovations."

To be fair, the Typo keyboard case - in all of its initial press coverage - was often described as basically an iPhone to BlackBerry conversion kit. That's mostly because the physical design - the black keyboard background, white-labeled black keys, down to the beveled tear-drop swoop - indeed looks a lot like BlackBerry's keyboard.

For its part, Typo fired back late Friday with a statement to Mashable defending its iPhone 5 case:

"We are aware of the lawsuit that Blackberry filed today against Typo Products. Although we respect Blackberry and its intellectual property, we believe that Blackberry's 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 Typo keyboard has garnered an overwhelmingly positive response from the public. We are also looking forward to our product launch at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week and remain on track to begin shipping pre-orders at the end of January."

Typo's optimism aside, the lawsuit will undoubtedly be a big challenge to the little company - even just in terms of ongoing legal fees and disruption of its planned product launch. For a full look at BlackBerry's lawsuit, check out CNET's scribd page.