The struggling smartphone maker filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court on Friday against Ryan Seacrest’s Typo Products company.
According to the Associated Press, Blackberry accused the “American Idol” host of patent infringement, involving an iPhone keyboard.
Bloomberg Business Week reports that the cellular phone maker claimed Seacrest’s company copied its designs for the keyboard.
Seacrest is the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Typo Products LLC, which put out an iPhone 5 keyboard that Blackberry alleges is similar to the keyboard used for its Q10.
“Typo chose to copy BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard design as embodied in, among others, BlackBerry’s Q10 smartphone, seeking to trade on BlackBerry’s commercial recognition and goodwill,” the Ontario-based company said in its complaint.
Blackberry has been on the downside for years after losing many consumers who switched to the immensely popular Apple and Android devices.
As of now, Typo Products still has plans to ship out the products in question next month.
Seacrest has not commented on the suit.