BlackBerry maker embroiled in another trademark row

After losing a trademark dispute for its new platform, BlackBerry device maker Research In Motion may face yet another name dispute, this time involving its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service.

 

This time, the broadcast measurement firm BBM Canada questioned RIM's use of "BBM," a messaging service that lets BlackBerry users communicate with one another.

 

BBM Canada - short for Bureau of Broadcast Measurement - had sent a cease-and-desist letter to RIM for naming its software BBM, tech site CNET reported.

 

CNET cited a Reuters interview with BBM Canada's chief executive Jim MacLeod, who said RIM had ignored that letter.

 

MacLeod also said RIM ignored as well requests to meet with RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie to discuss the matter.

 

The CNET report quoted MacLeod as saying the company would be willing to sell its rights to the name versus taking the matter to court.

 

But RIM, in a statement provided to CNET, said the two services may share the name, but are totally different, and thus "eligible to co-exist under Canadian trademark law."

 

CNET also quoted RIM as saying the company is seeking to dismiss BBM Canada's legal complaint.

 

"Since its launch in July 2005, BlackBerry Messenger has become a tremendously popular social networking service. In 2010, RIM started to formally adopt the BBM acronym, which had, at that point, already been organically coined and widely used by BlackBerry Messenger customers as a natural abbreviation of the BlackBerry Messenger name. The services associated with RIM's BBM offering clearly do not overlap with BBM Canada's services and the two marks are therefore eligible to co-exist under Canadian trademark law," CNET quoted RIM as saying.

 

"The two companies are in different industries and have never been competitors in any area. We believe that BBM Canada is attempting to obtain trademark protection for the BBM acronym that is well beyond the narrow range of the services it provides and well beyond the scope of rights afforded by Canadian trademark law," RIM added.

 

RIM said it has asked the Court to dismiss the application and award costs to RIM.

 

"Further, for clarity, RIM's application to register BBM as a trademark with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is pending and we are confident that a registration will eventually issue. The inference by BBM Canada that CIPO has refused RIM's BBM trademark application is quite frankly very misleading," it added.

 

RIM introduced its Messenger service for BlackBerry devices in 2005, later launching the feature worldwide in 2008.

 

Earlier this month, RIM lost the initial round of a trademark dispute to a small New Mexico software provider, and renamed its BBX platform to "BlackBerry 10."

 

"BlackBerry 10 is the official name of the next generation platform that will power future BlackBerry smartphones!" it said.

 

The platform now known as BlackBerry 10, unveiled in October, aims to be a unified operating system for BlackBerry smartphones, tablets and other devices.

 

It seeks to combine the best features of BlackBerry OS and QNX, the operating system RIM acquired in 2010.

 

It was the latest setback for RIM in its bid to get back in the smartphone fray.

 

Earlier, CNET noted RIM's stocks plunged on concerns it may have lost its way in the smartphone market.

 

Further complicating matters for RIM was a recent global service outage that left some people without e-mail access for as many as three days. — TJD, GMA News