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Official statement from RIM regarding the BASIS claim to BBX trademark

By Bla1ze on 19 Oct 2011 11:49 pm
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RIM has just issued a statement addressing the claims from BASIS regarding the BBX trademark:

“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.”

Topics: Research In Motion BBX Basis News & Rumors

BASIS International takes legal action against RIM over BBX trademark [Updated: Statement from RIM] Previous
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Bla1ze Bla1ze 3026 (articles) 6915 (forum posts)
48 comments

ippyg

First! :)
@IpsanG on Twitter
And I concur with RIM's statement!
#TeamBlackBerry #TeamBBX

kingbernie06511

deny, deny, deny...

settle

stormsurvivor

Why don't they just make it easy. Lose the BBX! They'll get an instant trademark for BBsuX

Bla1ze

Nope, @ac_lloyd owns that.

tedescop

Really What are people in arms about?
Basis has "BBx"
Rim has "BBX"
They are way different, lets move on to the important things!
Releasing BBX OS 2.0 to he public!

ignites

well its not that different but yes differnt line of business is the appropriate defense and will do just fine.

morpho4444

iOS has the same name than the QNX based IOS operative system on all CISCO Routers.

Same line of business, same purpose.

Lumute

And that caused them a lot of trouble with cisco...

romanh99

I just hope that what happened to the WWF doesn't happen to BBX. WWF turned to WWE because they kept sidelining the issue of the WWF trademark and branding (www.worldwildlife.org)

My true wrestling fans know what im talking about. lol. I know this is a tech blog but its the same scenario. GO BBX!!

gemmy

Wooow...WIN! The WWF/WWE debacle was on my mind just this morning for some reason before I even read this. I don't know if it's appropriate but I'm giving a +1 anyway.

(Now to stay on topic...Go BBX!)

CrackBerryTorch9800

Isn't the company suing rim title called BBx not BBX which RIM is using. If so they aren't the same and i dont think the other company can sue.

Jimcmf

RIM should buy BASIS and close them down.

psiclne

just acquire them too

Bruno_the_Great

Just proves that the same chimps that run Netflix also run Rim. Shouldn't someone have had the perspicacity to check for this kind of thing before? That said, they should be fine. But this will delay 2.0, (even more) I'm sure.

BBThemes

apple did it with iphone too, it happens, as for `will a name delay PlayBook OS2` please, dont be so silly

Bruno_the_Great

That was sarcasm, genius.

stormsurvivor

Here's a little more...The show is being run by Jim ImbeSilly

icemanswimmer

I agree with Bruno_the_Great, someone should have had check it out first to avoid any legal issue! It´s even in wikipedia!

It's not exactly the same and both companies have different core business but another headache to RIM is comming.

BBxFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
BBx is the original name for the Business Basic interpreter developed by BASIS International in 1985. Subsequent generations of BBx have been BBxPROGRESSION/2, BBxPROGRESSION/3, PROGRESSION/4, PRO/5 and Visual PRO/5. BASIS estimates that over 1.7 million end users worldwide run applications built with their products.

BBx dialects include PRO/5 (a character mode interpreter for Linux and Unix environments), Visual PRO/5 (a graphical interpreter for the Microsoft Windows environment), PRO/5 Data Server (a data server for PRO/5 data files), the BASIS ODBC Driver (a Microsoft Windows ODBC driver for PRO/5 data files).

The current generation of BBx is BBj (a superset of the BBx language and environment implemented in Java.

guerllamo7

Honestly, we live in a sue happy environment and people will sue you even if they know they are wrong. Apple sues people almost daily and the whole industry is counter suing everyone. This is why I believe RIM was smart to buy all those pattents for 700 million or so.

If you are saying that RIM was dumb because they got a lawsuit then everyone in the phone business is dumb. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, apple, Microsoft (king of lawsuits), etc.

It is just corporate legal action. I don't think BBx and BBX are the same especially in different industries.

Jimcmf

The laid off the lawyers as well .... lol....

nmlynx

For those of you that think case matters, do you think you can trademark IPOD or ipod...This is a clear case of trademark infringement.

Standeford80

While infringement is inevitable with the BBX, even different case letters don't matter. However, RIM can make a deal with Basis to use their trademark cooperatively as long as they are both willing to give eachother proper credit when using it . Otherwise RIM will have to come up with a new name!

digicon

Man . . . You hit the nail(not in the coffin), right on the head with that post ! . .

MADBRADNYC

Damn. I love that new BBX name too. Was looking forward to hot logos.
Hope some money exchanging hands will fix the issue.

Alphalucard

just change the name to BlackBerry X... they already own the trademark to BlackBerry anyways. once its released people will call it BBX casually again. RIM gets to 'keep' the BBX name everybody's happy screw the lawsuit. phew.. damn took me whole 1 minute to thought that up.

android didnt trademark ICS they named it Ice Cream Sandwich then people call it ICS anyway no lawsuit problem.

Liquid_Revolver

BBX sucks anyway...always thinking bikes and surfing lol

sridharsuresh

BBX and BBx are surely different in the line of business.. also i think BBX always has a capital letter X.. so its different.

Kuttysark

what if they just changed the bb to the bb logo and put X beside it, and just made the x look savage like.

coffee-turtle

The world is running out of acronyms.

mavsguy842

RIM's got a fair to good defense brewing. So long as they're in different lines of business, and RIM's use of BBX does not cause confusion, trademark infringement hasn't taken place - unless the trademark is pervasive and unmistakable (like the McDonald's golden-arches M logo) in which case you don't need to prove there would be confusion.

Clearly Basis doesn't fall under the latter category, so it will be up to the legal system to determine whether or not RIM's use of BBX will cause confusion among Basis's customer base. That's why Basis has already issued a statement saying their customers were confused by RIM's announcement - they want to be able to say in court "From the beginning our customer base was confused. That's what prompted this complaint."

IMO, Basis's customers are probably smart enough that they won't be confused for long (eroding Basis's trademark complaint), so RIM and Basis will come to a settlement outside of court. Most companies prefer to avoid court because the process of discovery is risky and potentially dangerous.

jstirtzinger

Thank you!!! Someone who actually knows what they are talking about! I am someone who also has experience with trademarks and OF COURSE RIM completed a search of existing marks....a law clerk in first year would do that for crying out loud.

You then make an informed decision if you find something similar as to whether you proceed or not...
1. Is the mark in the same industry
2. Is the mark similar in appearance
3. Has the mark been used commercially
4. In which countries is the mark registered.

RIM obviously decided it was worth it to them to proceed.

grimm01

RIM could have avoided all this by calling the damn thing BBQ... A name sure to turn some heads and generate interest.

advil_yum

QB2 OS, or QB OS, or QBB OS
QB for short....
The "Q" for QNX, "B" for Blackberry. Obviously.

wolfpack0008

If they are going to combine the names it makes more sense to put the letters BB first in order to establish the hierarchy between BB and QNX. Otherwise, they should just leave QNX and BB separate.

EchoTango

I think this action has some merit.

If I had spent years building a brand and some large company came along and used a name similar to mine, I might squawk to. That said, companies need to play fair on both sides, RIM should step up and do the right thing and BASIS should not see this as an opportunity for exploitation.

This whole patent trolling and copyrighting is getting to look very much like ambulance chasing.

nmlynx

For those of you that don't think BASIS and RIM are in the same industry, you can run BBx applications on the BlackBerry - you can also run BBx applications on iPhones, iPads, desktops, etc. BBx is a hardware and OS independent language. So it would be confusing as now BASIS (potential) customers might think that BBx applications would only run on the BBX OS. Do you all believe that RIM would think it would be a trademark infringement if a company created a programming language called blackBerri?

jstirtzinger

Basis looks rinky dink and are hoping for a pay day from this. BBx seems to be their legacy platform with BBj being their latest and greatest incarnation...check their website and all tutorials/tools are related to BBj.

http://www.basis.com/trainingtutorials
"As a superset of earlier versions of BBx including PRO/5® and Visual PRO/5®, BBj is compatible with legacy BBx products...BBj®, gives application developers the necessary tools to create modern, 21st century e-commerce and enterprise solutions."

RIM obvioulsly decided they could take these guys on. Would be interesting if the offensive position would be to show that RIM's use BB is more globally recognized and understood to represent BlackBerry and in fact Basis in infringing on them. :-P

nmlynx

BASIS and BBx have been around since 1985. http://www.trademarkia.com/bbx-78639049.html

So how is that BASIS could have infringed upon RIM?

digitalhomeboy

There isn't an infringement on Basis. RIM called their products "RIM" at first, especially for their first device. The name BB was adopted by the community following the growth of the 2nd-3rd early devices via tech blogs. RIM even went as far as saying at one point on correcting the name "BlackBerry" vs "Blackberry" (look at the second "b"). It went further with "BlackBerry's" and not "Blackberries".

martinjdub

Seriously, companies and their lawyers just don't toss out new branding without investigation. I'm sure RIM has its @ss covered.

Case closed

The RIMPIRE and their Army!

estarno

They should just call it "Pie". So it would be blackberry pie...

digitalhomeboy

The merit is surely there and though for the past week or so BBX has grown on me for its shortness much like the simplicity of iOS, WebOS RIM really has no debate on using this name at this point. If RIM happens to fight on grounds of businesses being two different to be confused with this would or might just stand as a bad example to come in the future of name companies/products. Agreed with several comments way ahead of me like the fact that an easy search on Wikipedia brings up "BBx" should have been performed or even a simple Google search to say the least. BBX really isn't all that cheeky of a name. Hitting another point would be the "BBx" vs "BBX"...they really are the same character wise and seeing BB in front one will think BlackBerry and not the other guy. Hell it's the first I'm hearing of them!

melander

This proves that the BBX announcement was an afterthought and hurried announcement when 2.0 was not ready to be released.

barrist

RIM makes you accept 5 legal agreements whenever you download something or want to do anything on their website. You think their legal team didn't think of this?