back to article RIM gives up on BBX name after court order

A US court has granted a temporary restraining order banning Research in Motion from using the name BBX for its new operating system. Software firm BASIS International filed for infringement of the trademark last month and the court granted the injunction yesterday, saying: BASIS is likely to prevail on its trademark …

COMMENTS

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  1. James Micallef Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Blackberry 10 issues?

    "It’s not a good sign that the new OS, meant to revive the company’s flagging fortunes, is already running into issues"

    Having to change the name from BBX to Blackberry 10 does not count as an OS issue in my book. Also, RIM failing to sell playbooks and having an employee with legal troubles are nothing to do with the OS

    1. Shakje

      But it depends on how much they already spent on marketing. Probably not as much as the Playbook mess, but still a significant amount I'd guess...

  2. petur
    Go

    What a problem!

    If the "issue" of your OS is its name, then MEH! Could have been worse...

    Move along, nothing to see

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Shouldn't that be

      ME!

      (we'll never forget or forgive)

  3. Jon Press

    It's not a good sign...

    ... that RIM, not unknown for its pursuit of intellectual property cases, apparently either didn't bother to research the new moniker or took a different view of the meaning of "incontestable". Eyes, ball, etc....

  4. philbo
    Joke

    Maybe we could suggest some alternatives for them?

    e.g. BBKing

    ..or even BBJesus

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      BBGotBack

  5. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Just buy the name? it's what Apple did for the iPad and iPhone. If you really think the trademark is the most suitable then why quibble?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes, a big problem

    Sure, if the issue were just the name, it would be a big "meh". But that's not the issue.

    The issue is the bungled handling of what should have been an exciting reboot for the brand. Instead what they delivered was:

    step 1: Fail to do the most basic [sic] due diligence on the name, like, say, checking the Wikipedia entry

    step 2: Launch new name very publicly at DevCon

    step 3: oops

    step 4: announce new new name, try to convince everybody that this name is much better because it is "aligned with the devices" and "leverages the tremendous brand recognition of Blackberry"... which immediately prompts the question of why they ever thought BBX was a good name in the first place?

    So I guess if you think that the only important thing is bits and bytes, then yeah, no biggie. But if you understand that there's more to business than code, this is one more example in a pattern of blunders.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blackberry please just stick to three things you're good at.

    Servicing the kids in need for cheap messaging, the poor IT techies forced to carry a company BB while on call, and the sad managers who still seem to think that pulling a BB out on a packed train to check their company email somehow makes them seem high-flying go-getters, rather than sad put upon saps the company is taking the piss out of!

    1. Bronek Kozicki

      I'm none of the above and I (almost) love my BlackBerry. And I'm looking forward to sensible alternative tablet OS based on strong realtime OS. Brand name? Of course anyone can call it BlackBerry 10 but I'm sure commonly used shortcut will be B followed by B followed by 10 - or perhaps roman X.

      Silly mistake indeed, but I sincerly hope that's only because they are focused on other things - like delivering great OS.

  8. Hayden Clark Silver badge
    Devil

    API horror

    Presumably all of the entry points were named BBX_DoSomething(), and the constants look like BBX_MAGIC_NUMBER and the enums look like BBX_THINGTYPE. So, much work with search/replace, fix up the API document, update the examples, training materials. Big job - especially the testing afterwards!

  9. Kirbini
    Facepalm

    I've got just the name...

    BlackBerry 10? How plain. Need something sexier. Like "Quickster".

    I hear it's available.

  10. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Mushroom

    "It’s not a good sign that the new OS, meant to revive the company’s flagging fortunes, is already running into issues, as investor and consumer confidence in the firm is dropping after a few months of very bad luck."

    Sorry there is no bad luck here. This is a classic case of Executive and managerial bungling at the highest levels. Lets introduce a tablet without built in email. Lets not design our own proprietary apps store until three weeks before the Playbook is launched. Lets design an global infrastructure that is dependent on a single switch. Endless bungles.

    RIM used to be a fast moving and innovative company. Now it is mired in corporate malaise and afraid to make any decisions. A purge is needed to bring in people who understand mobile technology, its development and above all else, consistent leadership like the good old days. Let's start with the universal BBM client for Android and iOS everyone has been waiting for for almost a year now.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    I can't see why it's that much of a game changing issue. Look at Phoenix, err I mean Firebird! Oh wait, Mozilla Firebird? Oh yeah, Firefox!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    yes but....

    They probably paid millions to a marketing company to come up with a catchy name, then millions to lawyers because they didn't check prior trademarks. No wonder they're in trouble....

  13. Mage Silver badge

    QNX

    It's a really good non-Linux really "Real time" OS. (Linux can at best be "kludged" to be real time). It's quite old and used for storage controller cards, embedded systems. You know, stuff that maybe has an LED or two as a UI.

    So bound to take some time to add a GUI. Though years ago QNX got a sort of UNIXy bloat and an attack of X Windows I think, so not exactly from scratch.

    Still strange idea I thought to buy QNX, though it does (or did) have a good reputation as a RTOS. Handy for running an actual Phone stack on.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      QNX certianly does/did have a good reputation, I'm not sure though that in the past year or so that RIM have been in charge of them that there reputation has grown at all. Indeed out of all the assets and IP RIM own I'd say QNX is actualy there crown jewels and I hope they realise that and move with it in a solid planned way. Why not call the new OS QNX instead of trying to make some name up that has been less thought out than wet nappy.

  14. thomas k.

    Nothing wrong with the name QNX

    A lot classier than BBX, for sure. And it had a good reputation, though not one the man on the street would know off the top of his head. And if you buy a company for its product and its reputation, isn't then changing the name, well, stupid?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Planning, QA and other useful things in IT that RIM fail at list no #4

    Welcome to this edition of what silly thing did RIM do today. Today there new OS they have been `planning` for so long had to be renamed due to the gross oversight that it was a name already taken. Rumour has it that instead of BBX they will call it RIMentium :).

    If they can't plan a name then I sure don't want to see there codeing standards, opps did somebody forget about standards as well, oh dear :(.

    --

    Joke alert as either my response or the initial news has to be one hell of a joke

  16. Lennart Sorensen
    Facepalm

    Oh so that's what BBX was supposed to mean.

    Wow it had never occurred to me that BBX was supposed to be BlackBerry X or BlackBerry 10. It seemed like a silly name. At least now they have to just call it BB10 or conveniently, BB X. :)

  17. admiraljkb
    Joke

    I'm just going to have fun with this, cuz - why not?

    If you are missing a funny bone - stop reading.

    As a Naval Historian type, I've been having a cheap chuckle.

    US Navy designation for Battleship = BB

    US Navy designation for eXperimental = X (ala DDX, CGX programs)

    -hence-

    BBX = Experimental Battleship (or in this case BlackBerry)

    So I think it was a good thing they lost the designation anyway. :) One less thing to made fun of, even on a somewhat obscure reference that probably only Lewis would get.

    Although, if it goes to BB10, I still get an incredibly cheap chuckle since that is the Battleship Maine. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb10.htm :)

  18. Mage Silver badge
    Happy

    X?

    Not many of today's Jobsian latter day disciples remember OS 9 to realise the X in OS X is a 10, and not "Echs".

    Though perhaps Apple is fond of the X and one the more recent releases really ought to be OS 11 ?

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