With the whole 'BBX' dispute now a thing of the past, RIM once again is facing some legal woes -- this time over their use of BBM. The Toronto based broadcast industry group BBM Canada has a long standing history of using the BBM trademark, and is now taking action against RIM in an effort to get the rights to their name back, claiming that RIM's use of the trademark is infringement.

“We want our name back,” said Jim MacLeod, president and chief executive officer of BBM Canada. “I find it kind of amazing that this wouldn’t have been thought about before they decided to use the name. The same thing goes for BBX.”

According to documents, RIM applied for a “BBM” trademark and was advised by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office that the trademark “was not registrable,” but they still went ahead and used it, even going so far as to show it as a trademark on their corporate website. This use caused confusion for the smaller company, noting that their email addresses were often confused for that of RIM employees and they even began receiving customer support requests for RIM's BlackBerry Messenger service.

BBM Canada is a group that was established back in 1944 and operated as the Bureau of Broadcast Management, to later shorten the name to BBM Canada. In August Jim MacLeod, president and chief executive officer of BBM Canada, went ahead and filed suit against RIM after attempts to reach out to RIM failed. Now the company is seeking an injunction stopping RIM from using the name in addition to seeking damages.

Thus far RIM has refused to comment on the matter, but looking at the situation it appears to be a losing battle. Much like RIM's use of the BBX name, the BBM mark has indeed been in use for a while. After having been advised not to use it, I can't see how RIM could ever possibly win this one nor do I personally believe they should. I seriously hope some of RIM's 'restructuring' involved firing some of their lawyers, because even I, with no legal degree or experience, can see that it's just common sense to check on a trademark before you know, using it and claiming it as your own.

Source: Globe and Mail; via: MobileSyrup

Some of you all may remember back to CES when Kodak was showing off their new BlackBerry offerings. Shortly after playing friendly at CES, Kodak then decided to bring forth some patent issues with Research In Motion and Apple at the same time, claiming both companies were infringing upon Kodaks image and image processing patents. Kodak then took the big leap and went to the ITC and asked them to investigate the issues at hand and most recently the ITC has stated they will certainly be investigating.

Now most times patent issues arise they tend to make big waves. Not always because of the possible impacts but, mainly because the companies that are claiming infringement are oft labelled "patent trolls". This doesn't seem to be the case with Kodak vs, RIM and Apple as Kodak claims they have been fighting this for many years now and having previously won settlement deals over the issues with Samsung. With the ITC now investigating the claims, as the Canadian Press points out these types of cases are beginning to pretty much seem like "the cost of doing business" in the technological age. Ride out as much use as you can before you have to pay up for licensing fees.

Its become common, so much so that the issues no longer have an affect on stock prices or investor relations. Either way, it seems as though Kodak will have their day to see if they were indeed right in their claims. In the meantime though, what do you all think? Has patent issues become a part of doing business or should something be done with the patent system improve upon it? The amount of time wasted in court could be better used, I think anyways.

At least one court has sided with Research In Motion in regards to Motorolas patent claims. As reported by The Calgary Herald, the High Court Justice in London, England invalidated Motorolas  patent related to email gateway systems and went so far as to say even if it had been valid it hadn't been infringed by two communications systems used by Research In Motion.

Motorola had requested that the ITC look into the actions of Research In Motion and their use of Motorola patents but with the London court ruling, the chances of the ITC weighing in now have just gotten a little slimmer. Invalidating one of the patents called out in the claims to the ITC Motorola has no choice but to pull that patent from their paperwork and subsequent claim to the ITC.

[ PhonesReview via Calgary Hearald ]