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Trademark Trouble For RIM Over New "BBX" Name

Posted by samzenpus on from the hits-keep-coming dept.

AZA43 writes "As if its latest BlackBerry service outage--the worst in company history--and the mass exodus of BlackBerry users to iOS and Android weren't bad enough, RIM is now facing a potential trademark lawsuit over the name of its next generation BlackBerry OS: BBX. The BBX announcement was the most significant news to come from RIM's BlackBerry Developer Conference this week, and now it looks like RIM may have change the upcoming platform's name to something else. RIM just can't seem to do anything right these days."

7 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. due diligence? by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I mean, come on people - you could hire a fucking INTERN for $10 an hour to look and see if there's any prior art or previous use of the term BBX, and I'm pretty sure that even if the kid isn't that bright or skilled, after about a week, they would have been able to give some kind of a thumbs up/down on this. This is just GLARING incompetence and mind boggling arrogance on the part of RIM.

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    1. Re:due diligence? by swebster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Almost as crazy as naming your product "iPhone" when there was already another phone with that name.

    2. Re:due diligence? by Baloroth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Maybe. RIMs response seems to indicate they think that the fields are far enough apart that it isn't a trademark violation, and they may be right. An OS vs a database/ toolset/ language? Just being in the tech field doesn't mean there is a trademark violation.

      A search on the USPTO shows several "BBX" tms, (including BASIS), several of which are in the tech field (on is even for a telecommunications suite). This took me ~45 seconds. I'm guessing they did the same. I think RIM definitely intended to say that the terms aren't in the same specific field and are therefore not confusing. Actual practice may prove them wrong, which would really suck for them.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  2. If they can't use BBX, here's another name... by Logaan · · Score: 4, Funny

    If BBX is supposed to be a combination of BlackBerry and QNX (BBX), and they can't use it, then they should just name it BlackBerry and QNX (BBQ).

    Might be catchy; "Hey, I'll BBQ you later!"

  3. Re:BBNX by justforgetme · · Score: 3, Funny

    What about BBQ?

    I'll bring the coal!

    --
    -- no sig today
  4. Re:I'll take what the platform offers...! by Octorian · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And if anyone actually was curious, the PlayBook Native SDK actually does run on Linux, and a lot of the F/OSS they've been porting to it is posted on Github.

    http://blackberry.github.com/

  5. Re:I've fucking heard of BBx! by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Conspiracy Theory ....

    BB knew that BBX was already taken. They announce "BBX" anyway, get publicity for the announcement. Then BBX trademark owner Basis comes along and complains, rightly so AND PREDICTABLE, more publicity. Next up, BB changes the name to something else, gets MORE PUBLICITY and comes off either looking really good ("oops sorry") or if they do it wrong like an idiot ("Doh, sorry"). I give them two days to change the name before they look like idiots.

    Three rounds of publicity on product name alone. AND everyone here will know what the name is. There is no such thing as "Bad Publicity", if it is managed right.

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