BlackBerry versus BlackJack: RIM sues Samsung for trademark infringement
By Cyrus Farivar 
posted December 10th 2006 3:01PM
posted December 10th 2006 3:01PM
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posted December 10th 2006 3:01PM
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Conversely, do you honestly believe Samsung decided on the "Blackjack" name independently or were they trying to allude to, hang onto the coattails of, and (in part) dilute the Blackberry brand?
as stupid as it seems RIM has to get back the money it lost to NTP somehow.
Given the choice between the two, I'd choose the Black Jack. I mean, BlackBerry. Wait, what the hell do I mean? I'm so confused! Oh why do they have to both use the word Black?!
Who cares...I'll keep my Q.
I swear I've heard on the podcast before of engadget going after people for trademark stuff. Wasn't the excuse "protect it or lose it"? Granted there's a line somewhere, but's hard to criticize just because you draw the line in a different place.
I love the new blackberry I just bought. But can someone clear up why it says Samsung under the screen. I thought it was a product of RIM. Oh well, its shiny....:)
nice, nice.. very nice
If I knew you in person I'd so give you a cookie :P.
We have never gone after anyone for infringing on our trademark. Get your facts straight!
well then, i certainly hope you enjoy my new gadget news site called ongadget.com!
Rediculous.
This would be like Apple suing anybody who had the letter "i" before their product name.
Money Hungry anyone?
Wait. Apple DOES do that.
Ooooh, right, it's a joke, I get it.
when I read the truncated heading for this in my RSS feed:
"Blackberry versus BlackJack: RIM s"
I thought that RIM must have relased a new toy and this would be a feature comparison.
so, yes. the name is confusing.
and i am SURE that was intentional.
Somehow I think that if "pod" can represent the brand identity for many of Apple's products, then is it ludicrous to assume that "black" could represent the identity of RIM's big product line? Apple's been able to enforce it, why not RIM?
Oh crap, instead of buying a blackberry, I bought a Black-ipod, damn....
It must have been the diggnation podcast, I stand corrected and apologize...
Lol yeah, you had the perfect opportunity too with the "engadget store" in malaysia.
No I suppose not, since I guess "cease and desist" letters aren't the same thing as enforcing trademarks?
A few examples:
Profit Pod - http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3482
Podcast Ready - http://blog.wired.com/music/2006/09/apple_hits_podc.html?entry_id=1561308
Tight Pod - http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3489
You would actually be surprised how stupid some people are. A person can easily have heard how great the Blackberry was from a friend then went to the store to buy one and saw the Blackjack and purchased that instead, either thinking there was no difference between them or thinking they misheard. Either way it was an intentional act of Samsung to have its product name resemble that of the Blackberry. There are an infinite number of other names they could have chosen but instead they picked a name that resembled the name of their closest competitor for this product. They deserve to get sued.
See, now people might read this and think "Well, people aren't that ignorant." they are, why I was at Best Buy a few weeks ago, scoffing at the prices as always, when I heard a sales lady telling a young group of people that there's virtually no difference between an iPod and a Samsung player(Not sure which it was), aside from the screen.
This isn't so much the Consumer, because the Consumer is going to be mostly sure of what they want from word of mouth. The thing is, it's going to be the sales people they ask in the stores, who are at least equally ignorant to the differences and just want to move the product, that will get them to buy it instead, explaining how they aren't all that "different", or so that's how I see it.
I really doubt that this suit will be successful, simply for the reason that blackjack is pretty well recognized, as a word, as having nothing to do with the blackberry. I am not going to say that there was absolutely no recognition of the similarity to "Blackberry", but the meaning on "Blackjack" in English is distinct enough from Blackberry, that they will prevail in the end.
When I saw the end of this article headline, I assumed Moto was suing Samsung for the very real similarities between the Blackjack and the Q. The suit would at least have some merit.
This is ridiculous they are two separate products. BlackBerry is the name of the OS (software), while BlackJack is the name of the phone.
Needless to say, Cingular must find this thing pretty good for publicity of their two newest smartphones
Gads, more lawyers. They will be consigned to their own special level of Hell.
I heard RIM is suing Dole next for selling blackberries at the supermarket. There are also rumors that they're gonna sue them for selling blueberries, strawberries, boysenberries and anything else that has the berry name. No word yet, however, if they're gonna sue the Black Eyed Peas.
Someone should considering their music sucks.
somebody should tell RIM that the word "blackjack" existed before their little fruity device came to the market...
Apparently you'll get sued every time you want to go play a casino game. Hmmmm.
In the side-by-side I would have to say Samsung has them beat.
The two aren`t related at all. A blackberry you eat...a blackjack is used to beat someone...RIM just got flogged !
As much as I hate 'copyright infringement' lawsuits, I think this is pretty valid... I mean, Blackberry, Blackjack... two syllable words starting with Black, and the products are in the EXACT SAME MARKET. This isn't like apple suing people for products named i[name goes here] or [stuff goes here]pod that have absolutely nothing to do with playing MP3s, this is similar products with similar names. I mean come on Samsung, that's pretty sleazy.
"Blackberry" has three syllables. Anyway...naming your product based on the market leader's format is a cheap tactic but its one that companies have been doing for years. Its a smart move either way by Samsung, because even if they're forced to change product names, they've managed to generate extra column inches for yet another dull-looking smartphone on the market.
Is really Samsung who's named his product that way? I've always thought that Cingular was responsible for the name of their devices like Cingular 8125(HTC Wizard) Blackjack(Samsung SGH-i607), Sync(Samsung SGH-A707)........Weird....
I must admit, when I first saw a commercial for the BlackJack, I caught myself wondering if it was a new BlackBerry phone or not. It's clearly designed and named to make people wonder that.
Of course, I only watch the cell phone market from afar and watch for neat things just to forget them later.
Clearly none of you know squat about trademark law.
RIM's case is pretty much rock solid. Naming their smartphone device "BlackJack" was a gutsy, risky move on Samsung's part. RIM didn't blink. So sad for Samsung. But not too sad, they'll settle.
at least samsung is a big enough compnay to totally crush them and put them where they belong. hopefully.
Which one of these black devices should I get? I want one... just don't know which is better.
It's so silly ... i wish i wouldn't have bought a Blackberry ... it's keyboard is sweet but it's PDA functions are too difficult to access and use. It takes email about 20 mins to get to my phone too ... "push email" ... pushin really slow :)
Samsung has a nice product. Blackberry (RIM) like Apple is being petty.
Well, people could see the BlackJack and think it's an upgrade to the BlackBerry, right? I sure would: BlackJack sounds a lot cooler :D
Here's the three-horse race I'm watching...
1. An Apple phone that runs on Sprint
2. A Samsung Blackjack that runs on Sprint
3. A Q that runs on Sprint (on it's way) that has fixed some of the problems that exist on other carriers' version of the Q.
I wouldn't be surprised if RIM won this lawsuit. Samsung's product name is confusingly similar (to non-blog-reading consumers), and competes directly with their product. It is trademark infringement.
"Infringement may occur when one party, the "infringer", uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a registered trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers. An owner of a registered trademark may commence legal proceedings against a party which infringes its registration." -Wikipedia
It really isn't ridiculous. And using comparisons to Apple and the letter "i" at the beginning of the name isn't very relevant. Unless a competitor of Apple uses the "i" in a product name to confuse consumers. Such as an iBox which plays MP3s...That's confusion, and would merit a lawsuit.
How about "chocolate Jack" ?
;)
ok, when i saw the article name and read the article, it seriously took me until near the end of the article to even realize both these products had the same first word. maybe i just am really tired (and i am) but why are these companies filling our courts with so many frivolous lawsuits?!?! it's really unbelievable what people will sue for.
"This would be like Apple suing anybody who had the letter "i" before their product name."
especially if the second letter was capitalized and the whole thing was in Apple's standard font.. oh yeah... that would be bs...
are you fo-serial, i'll check it out.
Damn. You lied to me. I booked marked it and everything. Wahoo scott, I hereby ban you from engadget.
fyi, y'all might want to consider the general multipart test used in trademark infringement suits:
1. Similarity of the conflicting marks;
2. Relatedness or proximity of the two companies;
3. Strength of the senior users mark;
4. Marketing channels used;
5. Degree of care likely to be used by purchasers in selecting the goods;
6. The "second comers" intent in selecting its mark;
7. Evidence of actual confusion;
8. Likelihood of expansion in product lines
now, can any of you really say that this suit is meritless, or that you wouldn't do the same if you were rim?
"This is ridiculous they are two separate products. BlackBerry is the name of the OS (software), while BlackJack is the name of the phone."
Are you retarded?
From RIM's website: Used by thousands of organizations around the world, the BlackBerry device is a revolutionary communication tool that allows mobile professionals to send and receive email wherever they go.
BLACKBERRY DEVICE... It's not the OS.
I have one of these, so I thought I'd add a few relevant facts from the box:
Model #: SGH-I605
Description: Samsung BlackJack(tm)
This tells us two things-- Samsung has applied for a trademark for the product name BlackJack for a cellular device and that application has been accepted for consideration, with the presumption that a registered trademark will be granted. It may not be, hence the (tm) instead of the (r). It also tells us that they could market it and sell it as the I605 very easily, just by changing the box and the advertisements, if need be.
My take, a shrewd move on their part. They applied for the trademark and if granted, sorry RIM. If not, they change the box and ads. In the meantime, because of the press, everyone will talk about the new Blackberry-like phone from Samsung...
Incidentally, I like this phone better than the 8700c and the Pearl at the moment. But that's neither here nor there.
The way I see it, RIM forfeited a fair amount of trademark claims by leading the naming of their device of an adjective that could be applied to nearly half of all the phones out there. I mean, we're talking about "black." No one should be able to own such a common word for an entire space. Has anyone else ever used the adjective "black" to describe their product before?
Umm, I don't think you can forfeit trademarks just because you have a common word in your trademark. Otherwise a lot of trademarks out there would be forfeited. If you claim it first, it's yours. Hello, Windows anybody? Considering that nobody has come up with the Black* product name for a competing mobile/smart phone before this, I'd say it's not all THAT common a term to be used, and Samsung is totally jumping on RIM's coattails with their Blackjack product name. Just because the term existed before doesn't mean squat. It didn't exist before in context of a smartphone, so RIM really does seem to have a case here.
May as well sue Sony because there Playstation 3 is black...and the XBOX is black, so they are going to be sued soon...then the whole african american race will be sued for being black...let's see, who else could they sue?