[lc474]

US software company, BASIS International, has secured a temporary restraining order preventing Research In Motion from using the term BBX to denote its upcoming operating system.


BBx is however a registered trademark of BASIS and the name it has used for it software products since 1985, according to Wikipedia. BASIS registered the trademark - for "Computer programs and associated documentation providing tools and programming language to enable software developers to create and prepare business, internet, and applications software." - only in 2005.

The TRO specifically prohibits RIM from using the term at its Asian app developer conference, DevCon' on December 7-8 in Singapore - and will no doubt require some pretty serious work by RIM to expunge it from any notes, presentations and demo software. It was granted by a US Federal Court in Albuquerque.

According to BASIS "RIM had refused BASIS' requests to stop the infringement at the DevCon conference, which resulted in BASIS filing for the TRO. In rejecting RIM's arguments against the issuance of a TRO, the court found that, 'The BBX mark is identical to the mark which RIM is allegedly using to present its BBX product' and 'despite the fact that the two companies are not direct competitors, the parties' respective BBX products are highly related and target the same class of consumers, that is, business application software developers.'

"The court went on to concur with BASIS that 'The alleged infringement is likely to cause customers and prospective customers to wrongly believe that the software applications created using BASIS's development tools are only compatible with RIM's BBX operating system'."

[ardew]

wow when it rains it pours.

[grunt0300]

How about DingleberryII? What do you think?

[waccotobacco]

This company is pathetic.

[Tre Lawrence]

Doesn't hurt RIM that much. Doesn't matter if they call it OS8... if they create a compelling ecosystem, they (consumers) will come.

[BaconMunch]

It does hurt...they announced BBX and now they're changing it, they NEED to show they can make a plan and stick with it.

[rollingrock1988]

news gets worse and worse every day.

[1812dave]

Does anyone not see the lack of foresight exhibited by the duo of CEO's of this extraordinarily poorly run company??? RIM should close up shop and send everyone home. What a freaking embarrassment.

[mustangv8]

Good job rim management. Could you not have done a simple internet search and devoted a few hours total before taking someone else's name?

Maybe the ceo was busy wasting more shareholder's cash.

Seems like rimm doing nothing is more productive than the latest moves they have been making at losing everything.

Good job rimm, keep it up.

[johnenglish]

Call it OSX.

[lc474]

in my opinion, this is amateurish. This is not something to be expected of a big company like RIM. SOMEONE must be accountable for this. To think nobody bothered to check, or worse they thought they could bully and win, is even worse.
So we've gone from QNX to BBX, to Blackberry 10. They got more names than they do phones at this point.

[greatwiseone]

FYI, Basis didn't WIN anything yet. They just got a temporary order barring RIM from using BBX at DevCon.

RIM just decided not to bother, and just change it over to BB 10. Makes them look foolish, but practically, doesn't really change much (they can always just pay Basis a bunch of dough the settle this).

[Jake-44]

For those that might want to read the U.S. District Court Judge's order on the issuance of the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued against RIM on the BBX trademark, a copy is attached.

In the opinion the Judge noted ". . . it is highly unlikely that RIM was unaware of BASIS�s BBX software development products before RIM�s adoption of its BBX mark. It is reasonable to infer that RIM chose this mark intending to confuse the public, or to benefit from the goodwill earned over the years by BASIS�s trademark."At least RIM will get a lot of free publicity re their upcoming BB DevCon Asia conference and their new BB10 operating system as a result of the litigation.

Side Note to BB Kevin and Crackberry: The order specifically: ". . . applies to RIM, their agents, servants, employees, officers and all other persons in active concert or participation with them, for a period of 14 days from entry of this Order unless otherwise extended by this Court for good cause, are hereby immediately restrained from:

1. Using any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of any BBX trademark in connection with the publicity, promotion, sale or advertising of RIM's goods or services at or in connection with DevCon Asia; or,

2. Using any BBX trademark or any name or any marks similar thereto, including but not limited to, in connection with any presentations, websites, materials, advertising, offers for sale at or in connection with DevCon Asia."

Watch out BB Kevin and Crackberry.com, you could be the next defendants hauled into court in New Mexico! LOL.

[bbmme]

whatever it's no difference then having companies sueing each other over patents.......

[katiepea]

this is possibly one of the highest levels of unprofessionalism i can recall. this is a multi-billion dollar revenue company, and they can't even double check to see if a 3 letter name is trademarked? is anyone at RIM even awake anymore? the entire world has written articles about 'BBX' phones, now the entire world has to write articles about how RIM apparently has no R&D, no lawyers, nobody capable of doing a search on the internet.. sheesh. i don't even know what to think anymore, it's embarrassing. every step they take seems wrong, every move seems ill-planned. who knows, maybe 2 drunk guys on a plane came up with BBX.

[sf49ers]

this is possibly one of the highest levels of unprofessionalism i can recall. this is a multi-billion dollar revenue company, and they can't even double check to see if a 3 letter name is trademarked? is anyone at RIM even awake anymore? the entire world has written articles about 'BBX' phones, now the entire world has to write articles about how RIM apparently has no R&D, no lawyers, nobody capable of doing a search on the internet.. sheesh. i don't even know what to think anymore, it's embarrassing. every step they take seems wrong, every move seems ill-planned. who knows, maybe 2 drunk guys on a plane came up with BBX.

dude chill..did you forget the iphone and ipad naming fiasco already? those names were previously registered by Cisco and Fujitsu respectively.. sometimes it happens ..

[JasW]

whatever it's no difference then having companies sueing each other over patents.......

Hardly. There is a huge difference between patents and trademarks.

A first-year law student could have figured out that Basis would prevail in any action to enjoin use of the BBX mark by RIM.

Who's keeping The List of RIM Execs Who Should Be Fired Pronto here? Because RIM's General Counsel just rose to number one with a bullet.

[PondHockey]

I never liked BBX and would prefer BB10. Leaves open a better naming string after updates. Still laughable that RIM spent a lot of money on marketing without investigating naming rights. If I did something like this at my job I'd be rightfully fired.

[lawguyman]

FYI, Basis didn't WIN anything yet. They just got a temporary order barring RIM from using BBX at DevCon.

RIM just decided not to bother, and just change it over to BB 10. Makes them look foolish, but practically, doesn't really change much (they can always just pay Basis a bunch of dough the settle this).

In order to get an injunction like the one that was entered against RIM, Basis had to show that it had a "liklihood of success" meaning that BASIS had to convince the judge that it was probably going to win. So, in most cases where a TRO is a given, the writing is on the wall.

This was actually an easy one because RIM and Basis are in similar businesses and RM's use of BBX really would have been harmful to Basis.

[lawguyman]

dude chill..did you forget the iphone and ipad naming fiasco already? those names were previously registered by Cisco and Fujitsu respectively.. sometimes it happens ..

Right. If you are going to do it, you better be prepared to buy the other guy off. That is what I thought RIM was going to do. Instead, RIM litigated it and now has this embarrasing decision and will wind up having to pay some money to this company and NOT get the use of the BBX trademark. There is still some chance RIM will buy BBX but it will now have to pay an arm and a leg.

[Fat Bastage]

Isn't Jim Balsillie now the head of the marketing dept?

[Rickroller]

RIM apparently has no R&D, no lawyers, nobody capable of doing a search on the internet.

It's almost like they were behind the curtain at Devcon trying to come up with something last minute..and decided to just go with the X..without any background checks.

I don't understand why they just don't go with QNX? Is it because it's used in other systems and they don't want to be associated with that? BB10 is just another lame numerical number..and I agree with some posters..they should've come up with some type of name. But again..instead of taking a few days to figure out something because of the injunction..heck..lets just pull a number.

[howarmat]

It's almost like they were behind the curtain at Devcon trying to come up with something last minute..and decided to just go with the X..without any background checks.

I don't understand why they just don't go with QNX? Is it because it's used in other systems and they don't want to be associated with that? BB10 is just another lame numerical number..and I agree with some posters..they should've come up with some type of name. But again..instead of taking a few days to figure out something because of the injunction..heck..lets just pull a number.

Yes i think that is correct. I dont think they could actually called it QNX anyway, its not QNX its a OS built on the QNX kernel and such. That is why it is Tablet OS. I think most took the QNX and incorrectly ran with it, me included. They did need a different name and BBX was good and catchy. Blackberry 10 seems like something that they took 10 seconds to think of so they named it 10.

[reden82734]

BBQ Would be better than BB10. lol. just some humor.

[Blackberry_boffin]

So is it BB10 or Blackberry 10?
If we are now running with numerals why did we just go to Blackberry 8
or
Reset to BB X1? That is different to BBX1