Typo Products is a company that has developed a keyboard attachment for the iPhone, mainly the iPhone 5 and 5S. BlackBerry alleges that the keyboard rips off their own 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,” Steve Zipperstein,
A press shot of the Typo iPhone Keyboard
Courtesy Typo Keyboards
BlackBerry’s general counsel and chief legal officer,
said in a statement.
The company filed the suit Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Seacrest founded the company along with Laurence Hallier, a real-estate mogul. The keyboard is currently available for preorder and will retail for $99. It will likely be showcased at the upcoming
Consumer Electronics Show and first shipments will be sent out soon. The keyboard is meant to reduce the number of "fat-finger" typos.
BlackBerry, meanwhile, has been making headlines for several months due to its financial woes. In December, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company
announced a loss of $4.4 billion in 2013's third quarter. In September, the company
announced plans to cut 4,500 company jobs, or about 40 percent of its entire workforce,