A federal judge in New Mexico barred BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. from using the name "BBX" for its new operating system, forcing RIM to rename it—at least temporarily—and deepening uncertainty around the planned launch sometime next year of RIM's next-generation smart phone.
The temporary restraining order applies only to a three-day technology conference taking place in Singapore this week. But the ruling is a significant legal setback for RIM's efforts to use the name. RIM, in a brief statement late Tuesday after the ruling, raised the possibility that it would abandon the BBX name altogether, after unveiling it just a few months ago.
"RIM doesn't typically comment on pending litigation, however RIM has already unveiled a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform," RIM said in the statement. RIM said the new name was "BlackBerry 10."
It wasn't clear if RIM had completely given up its fight to hold onto the BBX name. The Waterloo, Ontario, company declined to respond to requests for clarification.
On Tuesday, a New Mexico judge approved a request for a temporary restraining order from Albuquerque-based software company Basis International Ltd., which said it has already trademarked the name BBX.
Basis is a small software developer. One of its core products, BBX, introduced in 1985, provides application developers with software for programming.
The court decision is the latest in a growing list of large and small embarrassments for RIM. Last week, it lowered its profit and revenue estimates for the year, the latest in a series of warnings that have helped drive RIM shares down more than 70%. A three-day network outage in October disrupted service around the world, and its PlayBook tablet has sold poorly.
More recently, a number of more trivial events have dented the company's reputation. Earlier this week, RIM said it fired two employees who a Canadian court fined the week before for disrupting a Toronto-to-Beijing flight, causing it to turn around after hours in the air and return to Canada. Also, this week, Indonesian police said they were investigating a BlackBerry promotional event in Jakarta that turned violent.
Last year, RIM bought the developer of a powerful operating system called QNX and has long planned to migrate its next-generation phones off of its current BlackBerry OS to QNX. In April, it launched the PlayBook tablet, powered by QNX. Then in October, it rebranded QNX as BBX, and promised future phones and tablets would run off it.
RIM executives have said the new system is critical to the company, amid falling BlackBerry sales and a plummeting market share in North America. But excitement over the new OS has been obscured partly by a still-uncertain launch timeline for the new phone and poor sales of the PlayBook.
Earlier this year, RIM executives indicated the phone would be out by early 2012, but they have since retreated from that. Many analysts now expect the phone to come out in the latter part of the year.
As for the BBX name, RIM could continue to fight Basis International in the courts, or pursue a settlement with the firm. In an interview, Basis chief executive Nico Spence didn't rule out a settlement.
"Much like any other corporate business we think the best use of our time is selling and promoting our product, rather than in litigation," he said.
In a statement Tuesday, Basis quoted the court ruling as saying: "The BBX mark is identical to the mark which RIM is allegedly using to present its BBX product...and despite the fact that the two companies are not direct competitors, the parties' respective BBX products are highly related and target the same class of consumers, that is, business application software developers."
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