BlackBerry has gotten its berries pinched by Samsung Electronics new BlackJack device.  So BlackBerry is doing what it does so very well, its kicked off a Trademark infringement lawsuit, claiming that the BlackJack device is too similar to the BlackBerry trademark especially for a device that could be very easily confused in form and function.  (see review of BlackJack for Cingular)

However, the real issue here is that more and more companies are running out of names to use for trademarks.  Apple recently launched trademark lawsuits against companies that happened to use the word ‘pod’ somewhere in the name of the company or website.

Its a legitimate concern of companies that invest a lot of money into a brand name and device, but Trademark law is not very practical either as there is a limited availability of words in the English language to name a product.  There are also just so many derivatives of English words.

Where will the world be when all of the names have been trademarked?

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At a press conference in Korea intended to promote the new Samsung Origami unit called Q1, the presenters ran into technical issues. They were attempting to run the presentation with an actual Q1 (Samsung Origami unit) and technical glitches seemed to steel the show.

The presenter from Samsung had difficulty toggling pages & then before his presentation ended the battery on his Q1 died.

The presenter from Microsoft didn’t fair much better, requiring assistance and then a technical glitch fast forwarded through his slides in just a few seconds.

The third and final presenter from Intel tried to make a brave show of it, but also required assistance from a staff member to get the unit to function.

The unit has already been criticized for having a short battery life (3 hours normal use/ 2 hours DVD), and to have one die in the middle of a presentation by the makers does not help ease the situation.

It would appear that all three groups are going to have to push for an upgrade option for a better battery. Training programs might not hurt either.

The Korea Times : ‘Origami’ Stumps CEOs in Jobs-Style Presentation

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The battle over the bulge has moved away from focusing on celluloid and started focusing on cellular. Motorola led the pack with the introduction of the Razr and its recent fight to get the Slvr (pronounced sliver) to market on time. Samsung announced today the introduction of of a phone to one up the Slvr in thickness.

Samsung to sell thinnest cellphone in the US - Yahoo! News: “candy-bar-shaped t509 phone is 9.8 millimeters thick, which makes it thinner than the 11.5-millimeter Slvr, a sibling of the clamshell Razr.”

Its 1.7 millimeter’s will give Samsung bragging rights, but at a usability cost. The phone doesn’t have a camera.

It would appear that Samsung in its fight to keep up with Motorola on Phat has seemed to forgot the lesson that Samsung taught Motorola just a few years ago. Camera’s are now a requirement of any cell phone. A phone without a camera is no longer considered a phone. By the end of the year the less will be a phone without an MP3 player is not a phone and by the end of 2007, the lesson will be a phone that’s not a smart phone with access to high speed networks is not a phone. After that geeks can only anticipate the onset of all the glory that was promised to be in the cell phone industry for the last year, as broad band cometh.

Samsung can be fast, however, and they are projecting a Q2 2006 launch date as compared to Motorola’s launch date of Q3 2006. If either manufacturer slips on a launch date it will be fodder for the first entrant to the market, but even more perilous would be a slip that misses a Christmas date.

Disclaimer. The author of this article holds 50 shares of Motorola stock.

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