Comments on: HOT! The Story of how RIM Got www.InsideBlackBerry.com for Their Official Blog

By: dario betancourt

dario betancourt — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:47:38 +0000

tks ronen..even when you are safe using “berry” word, some others are being a little worry about this case. I think that the “bad faith” thing was so important, then I wait that domain like miblackberry.com or blackberrylatino.com that are publishing articles or reviews improving the experience for users maybe could be saw as a “good faith”
at least… I hope…
Dario

By: Josep Maria

Josep Maria — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:51:41 +0000

Thanks Ronen for the advice, so now i am awaiting news from RIM

By: MobileSyrup.com - Canadian Mobile News & Reviews - Cell phones and Accessories

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:45:49 +0000

[...] the full complaint from the WIPO here Source: BerryReview Share this [...]

By: DonGato

DonGato — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:37:02 +0000

I don’t think this is bad. If they own the name and find someone registering literally hundreds of domains with it then go ahead and recover them. It would be different if you own a domain and you use it properly.

By: RedNightHawk

RedNightHawk — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:04:19 +0000

I sort of understand what you’re saying, but I don’t find this particular instance all that worrisome.

A few years back a corporate chain called Jersey City filed a suit against a mom and pop type shop called Jersey Joe’s. From what I recall the mom and pop shop had been in existence long before the chain started up, but the chain had trademarked their name and a judge somehow ruled that the word Jersey belonged to the chain and other stores couldn’t use it (the theory being it was confusing to customers and would net the mom and pop shop business from Jersey City’s advertising). I found it weird then that a corporation could own rights to a word, especially when that word was in existence long before they came around. I think that’s what your concern is, Ronen, since blackberry similarly was in use before RIM came around, and if I understand your concern it’s how far do their rights extend into our lives.

It would be nice if trademark laws were a little more friendly in that regard – it’s one thing to own a made up name like Coca-Cola, another to own words like Apple, etc.

That said, I have no sympathy for cybersquatters, and don’t find the evidence gathering method they used particularly sleazy (it’s the way things work in investigations). I’m not familiar with the sites you mentioned, but if they were just parked sites the last thing RIM would want to do is tip him off and give him time to put a real site together on them).

P.S. if they ever picked on you they’d have a revolt on their hands from PO’ed BB users. A lot of us like this site and would have your back.

By: Ronen Halevy

Ronen Halevy — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:59:16 +0000

I hate cybersquatters just as much as the next guy but I just find it crazy that RIM now owns the word blackberry. It is a regular english word. I don’t know if rim won the case because George was a squatter or because they essentially own anything that has blackberry. Kind of like when apple sued the education company that had an apple in their logo…
I obviously have a vested interest here which is pretty safe since Berry was denied but its kind of crazy that rim thinks they own that too.
The funniest part is that insideblackberry was not even one of the best domains in the list…

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:02:25 +0000

I have zero sympathy for squatters. RIM is providing a valuable service to a lot of people, unlike Georges who’s apparently just trying to make a lazy buck off someone else’s work.

By: nah.uhh

nah.uhh — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:58:10 +0000

hey.. if they come head hunting for berryreview or crackberry blackberryfaq etc, im going to throw tomatoes at ballsillie’s hockey team…
im not worried about buddy, rim was just cheesed someone made it their goal to buy all the good blackberry urls.
what if blackberry came out with a new phone called “inside”
its clear they werent talking about blacks or berries or blackberries, they were talking about BlackBerry smartphones

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:18:19 +0000

RIM won the case for blackberrito.com wow..

By: Ichabod Crane

Ichabod Crane — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:37:46 +0000

It’s not that creepy Ronen. Was he using them for any legitimate purpose? Why else would someone register 100+ names with “blackberry” in it if not to cyber squat?

By: Corinne

Corinne — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:05:49 +0000

Nevertheless, onceyougoblackberryyounevergobackberry.com is a great domain name.

Too long though.

By: Michael Jones

Michael Jones — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:02:59 +0000

These guys are just like the patent trolls that patent obvious things like “walking on two legs”, and then go and sue people who walk.

Why don’t they simply get a real job?

Besides, it is not as easy as that. For example, people get mad at Apple, when they shut down a site called Apple.org. But if they don’t shut the site down, and other similar legal things, they can lose the right to the word ‘Apple’ as referring to a computer.

Later, Apple.org could sue Apple, and it would drag everybody into court, and then Apple would pay $25,000 to shut them up and buy the rights or something like that. So for the price of a domain name (what? $8), the Apple.org people make $25,000.

Stuff like that. You have to protect your name.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:46:18 +0000

TTune is right. I hate squaters and besides domains mean nothing anymore. It’s all about google. Ask yourself the last time you used a companie’s domain name rather than googling them? I even google domains I know because google gives me the sitemap so I can go into it.

AND it’s hard to win domains against these A-Holes so GOOD for you RIM. They must have a crack legal team!

By: TTune

TTune — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:15:14 +0000

My opinion, for what it’s worth: A domain squatter used whatever tools he could to try and milk the system and steal traffic from a copyright holder.

The Copyright holder used whatever methods (the same tools) to get their property back.

Seems fair to me.

I hate the squatters that steal my browser because I typed in a name incorrectly.

By: garys11

garys11 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:10:54 +0000

I guess I will get a letter soon, my domain is listed…lol