RIM forced to rebrand BBX as BlackBerry 10
Trademark dispute causes more grief to mobile pioneer
By John Ribeiro | Published: 08:50, 07 December 2011
Research In Motion has rebranded its next generation mobile platform as BlackBerry 10, after its use of the BBX brand ran into a trademark dispute in the US.
RIM said in a statement on Wednesday that it had announced at its DevCon Asia conference in Singapore a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform for smartphones and tablets, which will bring the best of the BlackBerry and QNX platforms to customers and partners.
"The BlackBerry 10 name reflects the significance of the new platform and will leverage the global strength of the BlackBerry brand while also aligning perfectly with RIM's device branding," RIM said.
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On Tuesday, RIM was barred by a court in the US from using the BBX name at the Singapore conference, after a software company, Basis International filed for a temporary restraining order.
Basis of Albuquerque, New Mexico, which claims the BBX trademark, threatened legal action in October, less than a week after RIM announced plans for its new platform called BBX for smartphones, tablets and embedded systems. RIM said at the time that although it has not yet seen the legal complaint, it did not believe the marks are confusing because the two companies are in different lines of business.
The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico on Tuesday however observed that Basis and RIM offer their products to the same class of consumers and in the same channels of trade. The BBX mark is identical to the mark which RIM is allegedly using to present its BBX product, it added.
RIM said on Wednesday that it does not typically comment on pending litigation.
