RIM wins BlackBerry Messenger trademark fight
updated 06:29 pm EDT, Sat June 2, 2012
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BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) has won a rare victory in court. The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that RIM can continue to use the acronym BBM, for BlackBerry Messenger, as an analyst firm challenging the trademark operates in an entirely different industry.
Canadian broadcast analyst firm BBM complained to the federal court in December that the acronym was a violation of their trademark. The communications firm had allegedly been contacted by users asking for messaging help, thus pointing out genuine cases of brand confusion. The Nielsen-like media consumption analytics firm has been using the trademark BBM since 1944.
"We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM's use of BBM does not infringe the trademark rights of BBM Canada as they had alleged," said a RIM spokesperson on Friday. RIM lost a high-profile trademark case when they lost the right to refer to the BlackBerry 10 operating system as BBX.
The news comes very shortly after the RIM CEO announced that losses were expected, the retirement of the Chief Legal Officer, and the departure of the Global Head of Sales.
