14 DAY TRIAL // The BlackJack trademark infringement lawsuit between RIM and Samsung has come to an end with RIM being the big winner. The lawsuit was the idea of Research In Motion who (brilliantly) thought the American BlackJack brand of the Samsung i600 handset was somehow infringing their own registered trademark, the BlackBerry.
Apparently, the judges confirmed their version of the story and now Samsung has to act according to the deal they made with RIM at the end of this quite senseless lawsuit. As RIM declared, Samsung has to apply limitations on use of the BlackJack trademark and to withdraw the trademark application for the same device.
The reason for the lawsuit between the two parties was, in RIM's opinion, the fact that Samsung was "misleading the public into falsely believing that Samsung's goods and services are connected with RIM's business". Yeah and I have caught a huge blue whale in the small river crossing my town yesterday :).
Their reason sounds a little moronic from my point of view and the result of this trial might have more serious consequences than the judges operating this case ever thought it would have.
Let's suppose you have some sort of e-mail solution business going on and you want to go mobile. If you'll want to give it a name starting with "Black", you should forget about it if you don't want RIM to get barbaric on your ass and sue you for every penny you have by shouting out loud "trademark infringement".
That is probably one of the top 10 stupidest lawsuits I ever heard of in my entire life. Why? Because, in my opinion, you must be a little stupid to make confusions between the BlackBerry and the BlackJack. What if they both start with that dreaded "black" word?
I suppose it shouldn't be so difficult for you to recognize a damn fruit from a card game. Have you ever said to your friends, by "mistake", "Guys, let's play some BlackBerry tonight at his house! Who has the chips?". I don't think so and that is the exact reason I thought this trial was totally irrational from the very beginning.
And you know what else has RIM demanded from Samsung? The "destruction" of all BlackJack handsets. I don't know if their wish will come true but just in case: RIP BlackJack!