Typo, the manufacturer of the Ryan Seacrest-funded iPhone keyboard case, has recently released a statement in response to BlackBerry’s intent to take legal action against them over the design of the keyboard.According to the statement, “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.”
For those unfamiliar, Typo is an iPhone keyboard case that basically attaches a physical QWERTY keyboard to the bottom of the iPhone, essentially transforming the device into a rather long candy bar-shaped smartphone. It was a good idea compared to other keyboard cases we’ve seen in the past which can get pretty bulky, although its design was admittedly reminiscent of BlackBerrry’s keyboard designs.
Many of you guys have agreed with our assessment too and have stated that BlackBerry’s plans to sue Typo was justified, which is why we have to wonder just how will Typo be able to defend themselves in courts, with devices like the recent BlackBerry Q10 being a perfect example of how similar their keyboard designs are (unless they claim that BlackBerry copied them, which would be an incredible, sensational twist). However it looks like despite being faced with potential legal troubles, Typo will be going ahead and debuting their keyboard at CES 2014. We suppose at worst the company will just have to change its design, but for now it appears that they are sticking to their guns.
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