I have been using BBx since the late 1980's. They have millions of users, and thousands of dealers. Our company has spent close to 10 million dollars developing a product with BBx. I am deeply upset at RIM for attempting to infringe upon Basis mark, "BBX". For those who don't know, BBx runs in both CUI, GUI, BUI, and it is running BlackBerry devices also.
We are upset because when we go up against SAP we certainly don't want our competitors stating that our software was written on a cheap Blackberry OS. Can you hear the laughter in the room. This would seriously damage or kill our company.
For those of you who are not familiar with the product, Business Basic was written by Basic Four back in 1971. The company was later renamed to MAI/ Basic Four. They had products called, BB, BBI, BBII, BBM, GPX, SPX, MPX, BOSS, etc. Employees of this company left and created BBx back in 1985. Since then, it has dominated the BB programming environment. They have millions of users, including customers like Citibank. In the back office environment, BBx dominates this world. BBx is well known to be the fastest programming environment in the world. I can clearly understand why RIM wants the mark. RIM would clearly be enriched by the use of the infringed mark. There was complete confusion in the Basis BBx world.
As for trademarks, Basis has used the mark since 1985 and gain uncontestable status of the mark in 1995 (Category #8 - software). Under USC Title 17 law, Basis is the only company that can use the mark, "BBX" with any product in the software world. Basis has the right to seek and be granted reasonable attorney fees, court cost, and damages if RIM does not cease and desist using the mark by October 31, 2011.
This case is a slam dunk for Basis.