RIM's Legal Strategy Over Samsung's BlackJack Is A Bust
from the would-you-like-to-buy-some-insurance? dept
Research in Motion (RIM) is no stranger to silly intellectual property lawsuits. A few years back they started suing lots of other companies over patents they held on wireless email devices. That, of course, famously resulted in small patent holder NTP suing RIM for patent infringement, and eventually scoring $612 million off of the company. What's amusing, of course, is that the lawyers behind NTP claim they only found out about RIM in the first place because of its own patent lawsuits. Apparently RIM's lawyers haven't learned a thing from all of this, and they're now suing Samsung over the name of Samsung's new smartphone: the BlackJack. This is a trademark (not patent) dispute, which makes a little more sense, since you need to protect your trademarks or risk losing them -- but it seems like quite a stretch to suggest that people are going to confuse a device called the BlackBerry with a device called the BlackJack. If Samsung had named their device with "Berry" it might be a more believable case -- since the "-Berry" suffix is more closely associated with RIM's device. However, the odd part about this is that it effectively helps Samsung a lot more than it hurts them. Samsung should be thrilled about this lawsuit, which is generating a ton of free publicity for their new device, which otherwise probably wouldn't have gotten all that much separate attention. Even better, it's being compared to what's considered the leader in the market. In RIM's attempt to defend their trademark, all they've really done is helped promote the competition.
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In other news...
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Blackberry vs BlackJack
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RIM is right...kinda
Samsung isn't stupid, but sneaky...they are directly using the branding awareness established by RIM to sell their product! You don't think they named it "Black" for any old reason do you?
RIM has every right to protect the empire they have built.
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Re: RIM is right...kinda
So what if Samsung named the device after the color of it - The Black-Jack is well... BLACK, as you might already know.
And what all the RED and also WHITE buttons on it, the device does sort of look like a toy you may find in a casino... thus an easy name such as "Black-Jack" is well fitting.
As for Black-Berry? Aren't they already deemed as "Crack-Berries" because they are so "addictive"?
BLACK & CRACK.... hmm, yeah, they rhyme, but that is about all they have in common, name-wise.
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What do all these have in common?
Berry, Jack, Q
Nothing to worry about - Sammy has the superior product!
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come on
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Blackberry vs BlackJack
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Wait a tic!!
Take that, Logic! Ha!
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Whether they phase Samsung or not, is really not the point. They are legally obliged to protect their trademark, this is them doing that.
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What about a BlackJill?
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Blackjack vs Blackberry
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/sarcastic snicker
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BlackJack is better..
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blackjack *is* confusing
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Re: blackjack *is* confusing
Trademarks aren't written to protect the dumbest consumer-- just the average one. Since I have had no problem telling the two apart, and I consider myself an average joe (ha!) then I'd say the trademark suit is bogus.
Sure, my grandma might be confused by the two, but that's why god invented tech support guys like you, Mr. sm. (or ms?)
PS- To whomever it applies: Thanks for the RIM job joke, it was a great way to end my work day.
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RIM could own Black* and *berry
Microsoft needs *soft
Google needs goo* and *oogle
3M would get *M and go after everyone who dares use that letter.
Discuss...
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Blackjack
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wow
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apples to apples
If the point was name=name then maybe Kellogg's should sue Samsung for taking some of their Apple Jacks cereal market too. The point is these are extremely similar devices; and BlackJack gets instant credibility because of what the name BlackBerry has become in the world of mobile PDAs.
It's almost like what happens in the illegal duplication capital of the world - China. I'll make my $5 Gore-Tex Jacket and call it Core-Tex.
And what does "my device is better than your device" have to do with this anyway? Who cares, that's not the point. Everyone knows what I say is best is best, and what you like sucks. right?
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But it's probably giving them too much credit.
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RIM is still the best
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RIM has worked longer
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Flawed rebuttle.
RIM is not wrong to want to protect that Trademark and stop Sammy from being sneaky and riding on their coat tails to make a few extra dollars off of someone elses mark.
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Its all in the name
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If RIM presents evidence of actual consumer confusion, like the kind mentioned by some of the posters, it could be devastating in court. I'm surprised Samsung pushed the envelope this far here. I haven't heard Samsung's legal arguments yet (with real lawyers, they would not make some of the arguments posted here), but I expect that this will be expensive for Samsung and may require them to pull and rename the product. Ouch!
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RIM loses face and educates the market
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Online Casino Planet
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