Court Bars RIM From Using BBX Trademark
The United States Federal Court in Albuquerque today granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Research in Motion (RIM), immediately barring RIM from using BBX trademark at RIM?s Asian DevCon on December 7-8 in Singapore.
Software company Basis International claims the "BBX" name is protected by trademarks it holds and had earlier threatened to take legal action against RIM unless it stopped using the moniker.
BBX is the the operating system that Research In Motion is counting on to revive its BlackBerry franchise.
In rejecting RIM's arguments against the issuance of a TRO, the court found that, "The BBX mark is identical to the mark which RIM is allegedly using to present its BBX product (TRO page 8)." and "despite the fact that the two companies are not direct competitors, the parties? respective BBX products are highly related and target the same class of consumers, that is, business application software developers (TRO page 9)." The court went on to concur with BASIS that "The alleged infringement is likely to cause customers and prospective customers to wrongly believe that the software applications created using BASIS's development tools are only compatible with RIM's BBX operating system (TRO page 11)."
The order described how the "Courts use a well-established four-part test to decide whether to grant injunctive relief (TRO page 7)" and concluded that "Accordingly, after considering all the factors relative to a determination of whether an injunction should be granted, the Court finds that all factors weigh in favor of BASIS (TRO page 8)."
However, RIM has already unveiled a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform. The company plans to use the 'BlackBerry 10' brand name for its next generation mobile platform.
BBX is the the operating system that Research In Motion is counting on to revive its BlackBerry franchise.
In rejecting RIM's arguments against the issuance of a TRO, the court found that, "The BBX mark is identical to the mark which RIM is allegedly using to present its BBX product (TRO page 8)." and "despite the fact that the two companies are not direct competitors, the parties? respective BBX products are highly related and target the same class of consumers, that is, business application software developers (TRO page 9)." The court went on to concur with BASIS that "The alleged infringement is likely to cause customers and prospective customers to wrongly believe that the software applications created using BASIS's development tools are only compatible with RIM's BBX operating system (TRO page 11)."
The order described how the "Courts use a well-established four-part test to decide whether to grant injunctive relief (TRO page 7)" and concluded that "Accordingly, after considering all the factors relative to a determination of whether an injunction should be granted, the Court finds that all factors weigh in favor of BASIS (TRO page 8)."
However, RIM has already unveiled a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform. The company plans to use the 'BlackBerry 10' brand name for its next generation mobile platform.
