Basis claims RIM abusing its BBX trademark
updated 08:15 pm EDT, Thu October 20, 2011
Company sues over BBx name dating back to the '80s
Research In Motion currently faces a legal dispute over the trademark BBX, which represents the BlackBerry maker's upcoming unified OS for smartphones and tablets. Just two days after RIM introduced BBX, software company Basis filed a lawsuit accusing the Canadian company of infringing its BBx trademark that is tied to a computer programming language.
"We have thousands of product licenses installed worldwide with the ‘BBX’ prefix that run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other proprietary UNIX OSs from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and SUN, with mobile clients running Apple iOS, Google Android, and Windows Mobile," said Basis chairman and CEO Nico Spence.
RIM has attempted to downplay the move, arguing that its BBX operating system and Basis' BBx language are marketed in distinctly separate business segments.
"RIM has not yet received a copy of the legal complaint described in Basis International’s press release, but we do not believe the marks are
confusing, particularly since our respective companies are in different lines of business," RIM said in a statement.
Although the OS and programming language are not competing products, Basic suggests its BBx trademark is utilized by developers who create apps for iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and other mobile platforms with JavaSCript-enabled browsers.
"Ironically, Basis' BBx may aid RIM in its quest to grab a share of the application market for mobile devices in that any application created with Basis' BBx for the Android or iOS mobile devices will also run on BlackBerry products," said Spence.
It is unclear if RIM and Basis will negotiate a licensing deal or push the dispute through the courts.
