CES 2015: Ryan Seacrest’s Typo Hits The Big Tech Show But Has Met Conflict With BlackBerry
Together with co-founder and CEO Laurence Hallier, Seacrest helped launched their upcoming keyboard in this year's tech show. The celebrity host has invested US$1 million in the new accessory which is said to work with Apple's flagship devices such as the iPhones, iPad Air and iPad mini with a keyboard attached to the bottom half, Tech Crunch reports.
In a nutshell, the Typo keyboard adds one-fourth inch in thickness and a less than three-fourth inch in total length to the iPhone. The mini-keyboard is using the company's patented TypoTouch keyboard technology and is packed with 1mm thick Lithium-ion battery in order to deliver easy solution for typing problems.
Meanwhile, CNN Money reported that BlackBerry has been in conflict against Typo. The report said that BlackBerry has submitted a patent infringement lawsuit and has even called Seacrest's mobile keyboard device "a blatant infringement against BlackBerry's iconic keyboard."
Apparently, the Canadian-based company has plans of stopping the launch of the Typo this month. Pre-order for the Typo which sells at US$99 has begun last Dec. 2014. BlackBerry's general counsel Steve Zipperstein said that the company is flattered by the alleged copying of its famous keyboard and applying it to other smartphone brands. However, Blackberry will not tolerate such incident of copying its intellectual property and its technological innovations.
In answer to the allegations, Joanne Freed, a Typo spokeswoman said that the company respects BlackBerry's intellectual property and has found that the big tech company's claims against them lacking of enough merit. Typo is the product of the company's years of research and development and with the positive response that the mobile keyboard is getting, they are excited to take part of this year's big tech show, Freed added.
Finally, the "American Idol" host also shared that he has more plans for the company and is using the experience with the start-up keyboard as training ground for bigger things to come. Despite the latest controversy that the company is going through with Blackberry, Seacrest's team hopes that the Typo's exposure in the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show will mark a good start for them.
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