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What’s The Plural Of BlackBerry? The Definitive Answer

by Ronen Halevy on May 27th, 2008 at 10:04 am EST
6 Comments »
 

BlackberrysvsblackberriesI know this argument has been going on for ages. Is it BlackBerrys or BlackBerries. I have heard the points on both sides and personally held by BlackBerrys. Even the trusty Wikipedia refers to both the plural “BlackBerrys” AND “BlackBerries” in their article. 

So I did the research and it turns out all of us were wrong…

According to RIM’s Branding Guidelines. (You can read it for yourself at this link on RIM’s website)

Do not use RIM Trademarks in a plural or possessive form.

Acceptable:

  •  BlackBerry® smartphones

Unacceptable:

  • BlackBerrys
  • BlackBerries
  • BlackBerry’s

This is stressed even further in the BlackBerry Branding Guidelines document

Blackberry_branding_guidelines

If you want a good laugh you should read the whole guidelines document. RIM seems to think they own every derivative of BlackBerry including the two letters BB. According to their creative lawyers you also cannot use the word BlackBerry to, and I quote:

You are not permitted to use the RIM Trademarks in any manner that disparages RIM, its affiliates, partners, products or services.

I guess RIM thinks this is a way to legally protect BlackBerry Smartphones (intentional dig) from bad reviews.

So what do you think? I personally will be sticking with the trusty BlackBerrys…

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6 Comments to “What’s The Plural Of BlackBerry? The Definitive Answer”

  1. Posted by: Luciano ES
    May 27, 2008 at 5:40 pm EST

    Well, forbidding people from using “Blackberry” as a noun is RIMarkably silly. :-) You can’t stop that kind of usage with laws and regulations. But I agree that it makes more sense not to apply any plural form to the brand name. Therefore, one should buy “two Blackberry”, as in “two Blackberry (phones)”.
    Great find, Ronen! :-)

  2. Posted by: Jeff
    May 27, 2008 at 5:47 pm EST

    Its to protect their trademark.

    And did you actually call Wikipedia “trusty”?

  3. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    May 27, 2008 at 5:57 pm EST

    Sorry Jeff sometimes I don’t stress the IRONY :)

  4. Posted by: Greg Myers
    May 28, 2008 at 5:12 am EST

    This has gone from a private debate to a public forum. BlackBerry’s vs BlackBerries has just about run its race. :)
    My take on the matter; ‘Blackberries’ is the plural of blackberry, eg. “Greg has way to many blackberries” (something my wife says a lot :) ). ‘Blackberry’s’ means ‘belongs to blackberry’, eg. “Blackberry’s new operating system”.
    Now if any of our readers out there are English Literature professors or similar could you please let us know the correct ‘plural’ of ‘blackberry’ and we can put this debate to bed…

  5. Posted by: DavidB
    May 28, 2008 at 1:55 pm EST

    If RIM were following their own guidelines, wouldn’t the default “signature” on BIS email accounts be “Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone”, rather than what it says now “Sent from my BlackBerry”???

  6. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    May 28, 2008 at 2:09 pm EST

    That’s awesome. I did not think of that David…