Manufacturers of the one of the world's most popular brand of smartphones, BlackBerry have been held up, yet again over the name of one of their services, and a very popular one at that - BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Reportedly, a Canada-based company with a moniker similar to that of RIM's popular service, has taken a disliking to the usage of the term by RIM. BBM Canada, a company that measures radio and television audience data has now approached a Federal court appealing against this, with a hearing scheduled by February.
Caught over a name!
Interestingly, reports state that while the company's Chief Executive, Jim MacLeod would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that RIM stops advertising the contentious BBM moniker, he doesn't mind changing the name of his "much smaller company's", albeit for a price. The report quoted him as saying, "We have to be practical, they operate worldwide, we don't. But we're not prepared to just walk from our name." As opposed to this, RIM seems unruffled, and states that, "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."
Drawing a comparison, the report further states that, "BBM Canada was established in 1944 as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement. It changed its name to BBM in the 1960s and to BBM Canada in the early 1990s, MacLeod said. The company, owned by a collection of broadcasters and advertisers, has annual revenue of around $50 million. RIM's sales were more than $5 billion last quarter."
Only recently, RIM were forced to change the name of their operating system, from BBX to BlackBerry 10 after the usage of the former lead to it being entagled in a legal web in the U.S.
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