BlackBerry settles patent dispute with Seacrest's company Typo

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd and television host Ryan Seacrest's keyboard company Typo Products have agreed to settle a patent dispute over the sale of smartphone keyboards of a certain size, the Canadian smartphone maker said on Monday. Under the terms of the settlement, Typo will stop selling keyboards for smartphones and other devices with screens smaller than 7.9 inches, BlackBerry said. It can continue selling keyboards for larger devices. In February, a U.S. district court sanctioned Typo, co-founded by "American Idol" host Seacrest, for violating an injunction that barred it from selling a $99 iPhone keyboard case that BlackBerry said infringed its patents. Physical keyboards have remained a key selling point for BlackBerry, loved by many of the company's most loyal fans, as it loses market share to Apple's iPhone and phones that run on Google's Android operating system, which typically have touchscreen keyboards. (Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Bernadette Baum)