Research in Motion can't seem to catch a break these days. Earlier this month the company dropped the BBX name for its next mobile operating system thanks to a lawsuit from a tech company that was already using the BBX name. Now Reuters reports that RIM is dealing with a similar lawsuit, this time for the acronym for its Blackberry Messenger service.
The service is largely referred to by RIM and others as BBM. That term is also used as part of the business name for BBM Canada, a company that measures radio and television audience data in that country. BBM Canada claims that RIM's use of BBM for its messaging service is a trademark violation. The company was formed in 1944 as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement and changed its name to BBM in the 1960s. Its current name, BBM Canada, was established in the 1990s.
BBM Canada would like for RIM to either stop using BBM as a way to identify its messaging service or pay BBM Canada to change its name. In a statement, RIM said that BBM Canada's business "clearly do not overlap" with those of the Blackberry Messenger.
It added, "We believe that BBM Canada is attempting to obtain trademark protection for the BBM acronym that is well beyond the narrow range of the services it provides and well beyond the scope of rights afforded by Canadian trademark law." The case is scheduled to come to trial in February 2012.
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