BlackBerry wins court order against Ryan Seacrest’s Typo Case
By Karissa Bell From Mashable
BlackBerry scored a major victory in its ongoing legal battle with Typo, the Ryan Seacrest-backed company behind the iPhone keyboard case.
On Friday, a San Francisco court granted a preliminary injunction against Typo that prohibits the company from selling its $99 BlackBerry lookalike keyboard case.
The judge for the case said BlackBerry had proved a “likelihood” that Typo had, in fact, infringed on the company’s patents and that Typo had not provided sufficient proof otherwise.
“BlackBerry is pleased that its motion for a preliminary injunction against Typo Products LLC was granted,” a spokeswoman for BlackBerry told Reuters. “This ruling will help prevent further injury to BlackBerry from Typo’s blatant theft of our patented keyboard technology.”
BlackBerry filed the lawsuit against Typo in January, alleging the company was infringing against BlackBerry’s keyboard patents. Typo has maintained that Blackberry’s claims were invalid because similar keyboard designs were available prior to BlackBerry’s 1999 patent.
In a statement to Bloomberg Businessweek, Typo said the company is disappointed but will “continue to make and sell innovative products that busy people can’t live without.”
Typo, which was co-founded by Ryan Seacrest, first unveiled its keyboard case in December. The American Idol host reportedly invested $1 million in the company.
The ruling was the latest in some long-awaited good news for the Waterloo-based phone maker. Friday, news that the company’s stock was up 24% over the last three months took Wall Street by surprise and offered investors a glimmer of hope the struggling company could still make a comeback.
PHOTO: Ryan Seacrest at Z100’s Jingle Ball 2013 at Madison Square Garden on December 13, 2013. IMAGE: EVAN AGOSTINI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
For more on this story go to:
