US court temporarily bans RIM from using BBX trademark

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A U.S. court has issued a temporary restraining order against Research in Motion which bans the BlackBerry maker from using the BBX trademark with which it had been hoping to market its new smartphones.

The decision by a federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., bans RIM from using the BBX mark at a conference being held in Singapore this week after finding that software company Basis International Ltd. had registered and used the trademark for 26 years.

BBX was meant to be the name of a new operating system to serve a new generation of RIM (TSX:RIM) smarphones and tablets expected next year.

While the Waterloo-Ont.-based company didn’t issue a release on the U.S. court ruling, a tweet from the company Tuesday night said “BlackBerry 10” was the official name of the next generation platform that will power future smartphones from the company.

The U.S. court found the BBX mark being used by Basis was identical to the one RIM planned to use to present its new product.

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It also found that RIM had refused Basis’ requests to stop the infringement on its trademark at the upcoming Asian conference, which was what resulted in the software company filing for the restraining order.

The restraining order lasts 14 days.

“The alleged infringement is likely to cause customers and prospective customers to wrongly believe that the software applications created using BASIS’s development tools are only compatible with RIM’s BBX operating system,” said the court ruling.

The trademark setback adds to the slew of bad news RIM has faced recently.

Last month it announced it will take a hit of more than half a billion dollars from discounting its PlayBook tablet and from its recent massive email outage earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the head of its operations in Indonesia could face charges related to a stampede at a recent promotional sale where dozens of consumers were injured, and two rowdy RIM executives, who have since been fired, brought more bad press to the company after their antics caused an Air Canada flight to be diverted to Vancouver.

RIM’s shares were down 12 cents to $17.18 when the Toronto Stock Exchange closed Tuesday.