RIM Wins Court Approval to Continue Using BBM Name

From DailyTech: RIM's stock is tanking and the company is losing customers in droves to smartphones running Android and iOS. Layoffs and losses are on the horizon and its smartphone inventory is piling up, but RIM has at least one bright spot this week to point to as a win.

RIM has been in a trademark lawsuit against the company called BBM Canada over the “BBM” acronym RIM has long used for its BlackBerry Messenger service.

BBM Canada is broadcast industry group that has held the BBM trademark for over 60 years. RIM won the case insofar as it has been allowed to continue using the BBM acronym despite the fact that the other company holds the trademark.

The loss of the BBM trademark could have been very bad had the case gone the other way for RIM. BBM is one of the most popular features of all BlackBerry smartphones and one of the most commonly used with about 50 million users globally.

RIM argued in court that it and BBM Canada were operating in clearly different businesses; therefore there would be no confusion with consumers between the two. The court agreed with RIM and allowed the company to continue using the BBM acronym.

“We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM’s use of BBM does not infringe the trademark rights of BBM Canada as they had alleged,” RIM spokeswoman Tenille Kennedy said in a statement following the court ruling on Wednesday.

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