Research In Motion (RIM) may face a legal challenge from a software development company after announcing its new BlackBerry platform, BBX.
BASIS International says it must protect its long-standing trademark for “BBx” — a language, database and toolset — and claims RIM’s BBX announcement has caused confusion among BASIS’ BBx users. The company warns the overlap could harm its reputation as a cross-platform application development provider.
BASIS Chairman and CEO Nico Spence explained that the company has thousands of product licenses in use worldwide under the “BBx” prefix, running on Windows, Linux and macOS, with mobile clients for Apple iOS, Google Android and Windows Mobile. “We are fielding numerous customer inquiries voicing their confusion about the RIM announcement,” Spence said.
RIM has not yet been served with a legal complaint and has downplayed the concerns, saying it does not expect confusion because the businesses operate in different areas of the industry.
The dispute comes after recent setbacks for RIM, most notably a global service outage that lasted three days and disrupted email and internet access for many users.
RIM describes BBX as a bridge between its current BlackBerry OS and the QNX platform, intended to remove development obstacles and make it easier to create applications. The platform introduces new development tools and environments, including WebWorks, Adobe AIR/Flash and a native SDK, and it will support cloud services and modern HTML5 development.
BBX will also include a new user interface framework called BlackBerry Cascades, designed to enable richer app integration and support services such as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said the company is focused on giving developers the tools and guidance needed to build richer smartphone and tablet experiences as the BlackBerry and QNX platforms converge into the next-generation BBX platform.
With the growing number of consumers using smartphones and tablets, RIM aims to attract more developers to expand the app ecosystem for its devices. “It’s a really exciting time for BlackBerry developers,” Lazaridis added.
For those interested in the broader future of multiplatform apps and the impact on marketers, developers, businesses, brands and operators, industry conferences later in the year will feature sessions from leading global brands and experts discussing the market’s rapid growth.