Why BlackBerry Is Suing Ryan Seacrest

The American Idol host is clearly the struggling company's biggest problem right now

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Noel Vasquez / Getty Images

Ryan Seacrest attends an NBA playoff game

BlackBerry took a break Friday from dealing with falling revenue, rescinded sales attempts, and a lost CEO to take on what one tech blog wryly describes as the company’s “real threat”: American Idol host Ryan Seacrest.

The company is suing Typo Products, cofounded by Seacrest and entrepreneur Laurence Hallier, for creating a case with a keyboard that allegedly infringes on BlackBerry’s patents. “Typo has blatantly copied BlackBerry’s keyboard,” the company said in a press release Friday, conceding that it was at least “flattered by the desire to graft our keyboard onto other smartphones.”

Here’s what the Typo case looks like:

typo products

Typo Products

And here’s a BlackBerry:

BlackBerry Bold
Research in Motion

BlackBerry isn’t making any friends in the celebrity world this week. The struggling company also ended its relationship with singer Alicia Keys on Thursday, who had been serving as a creative director.