BlackBerry is suing a startup called Typo Products, which is owned and operated by Ryan Seacrest. The company, which creates cases for iPhone that function as regular keyboards – as opposed to the traditional – touchscreen keyboard – says that the second edition of the case is just as much of a rip off as the first was.
Interestingly, the first keyboard case that was created and launched by Seacrest’s Typo saw a similar reaction from the struggling tech company. BlackBerry argues that the design of the keyboard and case was a rip off, and that ultimately, the company is still infringing on BlackBerry’s patent rights.
Currently, Typo 2 exists for the iPhone 5, 5s, and 6. They cost between $79 and $99 depending on the device the user is operating, and really isn’t a cheap knock off of a BlackBerry product. While it does share some physical characteristics of the BlackBerry keyboard – really BlackBerry could claim this against any company that now puts a physical keyboard on a smartphone.
Physical keyboards have gone away and phased out of the tech space, and they’ve been replaced by touchscreen keyboards. While they have flaws of their own – BlackBerry is still really the only company fully-dedicated to those almost pre-historic keyboards that were famously on the BlackBerry devices of brighter days.
Now though, the company has something new to be excited about. BlackBerry and AT&T announced that starting this week the BlackBerry Classic, as well as the BlackBerry Passport would be going on sale in the United States on the AT&T network. This is something that has been getting waited on for some time now, and interestingly, the prices of the two devices will be quite reasonable.
The Passport will cost $199 with a two-year contract, and the Classic will cost just $49 with a two-year contract. While prices will be higher, but still reasonable – as reasonable as off-contract smartphones get – it should perform fairly well on this new market. Both devices have performed fairly well thus far, and there seems to be a reasonable amount of excitement around the launch here in the United States – even if that excitement only lasts temporarily. This lawsuit though, is nothing new, and really, nothing exciting for BlackBerry, who unfortunately needs a lawsuit to generate any real interest or media buzz.
