Looks like Waterloo-based RIM will be doing some heavy marketing changes. A couple months ago at the BlackBerry DevCon in San Francisco the company formally announced their next generation of smartphones would be powered by the new BBX platform, similar to what the PlayBook is currently running. However, shortly after this news, BASIS International, “a big little software company”, took “swift legal action” against RIM and argued that they knowingly infringed on their BBX trademark.
Yet another nail has hit RIM tonight. A press release just went out that stated “US Federal Court Bars RIM (BlackBerry) from Using BASIS’ BBX Trademark”. Yes, this means that RIM, for the time being, cannot use the BBX name in any fashion. The release stated 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.”
So what did RIM do? Well, since BlackBerry DevCon Asia is in full gear, they quickly re-branded BBX to “BlackBerry 10″, noting very enthusiastically on Twitter that “BlackBerry 10 is the official name of the next generation platform that will power future BlackBerry smartphones!”.
Honestly, I wonder when they will catch a break.
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