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RIM faces legal strife over BBM

Poor old RIM: even during the season of goodwill to all men, the company cannot catch a break and is being dragged back to court over the use of the BBM trademark.

BBM is shorthand for BlackBerry Messenger, RIM’s ‘Berry to ‘Berry instant messaging service, but it’s also the name of a Toronto-basee broadcast industry group called BBM Canada (obviously).

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“We want our name back. 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,” said Jim MacLeod, CEO of BBM Canada.

Kind of amazing He raises a good point; RIM recently had to concede

defeat in a battle over the term BBX and change the name of its next generation OS to BlackBerry 10.

You’d think RIM would have a team of qualified lawyers checking these things before they’re announced – and apparently they do: it seems that the company applied for a trademark for BBM and was told it “was not registrable” by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. But the company used it anyway.

The outlook’s not looking too rosy for RIM in this particular court battle so 2012 may well bring a serious name change for BBM.

From Globe and Mail via Crackberry

Posted from Dr-Hack’s Android

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