It is possible that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion just can’t seem to get a break these days?
RIM is facing potential litigation over the name of the next generation platform it introduced this week: BBX, an operating system for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets.
BASIS International Ltd., a global software company based in Albuquerque, N.M., claims it already has a trademark on “BBx" and that RIM’s new operating system could cause confusion and hurt BASIS’ reputation.
“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," BASIS CEO Nico Spence said in a statement Wednesday. “We are fielding numerous customer inquiries voicing their confusion about the RIM announcement."
Spence told Reuters that his company has sent RIM a cease and desist letter and requested a response by the end of the month.
“Failing that, we’ll take the next logical legal step," he added.
The threat of litigation is just the latest of several challenges and headaches that RIM has endured over the last several months, including a recent network outage that disrupted services for many BlackBerry customers around the world.
The company is hoping that BBX – its yet-to-be-released platform for smartphones and tablet computers – will help revive its diminished BlackBerry brand, and a lawsuit is the last thing it needs.
“RIM has not yet received a copy of the legal complaint described in Basis International’s press release," the BlackBerry maker told Reuters, “but we do not believe the marks are confusing, particularly since our respective companies are in different lines of business."