BASIS International Ltd., a global software company, on Wednesday sought a preliminary injunction against BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion as part of a trademark infringement action in federal court in New Mexico over the name BBX.
The trouble started after RIM introduced BBX, a next-generation platform for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, last month. Albuquerque, N.M.-based BASIS International claims the BlackBerry maker is hurting BASIS' association with a BBX brand that it built over many years.
"BASIS built the BBX brand over the course of a quarter of a century to become synonymous with the term 'operating system independent.' RIM's unilateral seizure of that brand to use as a name for their BlackBerry operating system is destroying that association," BASIS Chairman and CEO Nico Spence said Wednesday in a prepared statement. "We provide application development tools for the enterprise, and for desktop and mobile solutions, while RIM is touting their new BBX operating system to application software developers and the world as the linchpin to their strategy for their tablet and smartphone products."
RIM's media relations team declined to comment on the lawsuit and preliminary injunction.
