The Canadian ratings company known as Bureau of Broadcast Management or BBM for short is taking the makers of Blackberry to court in early 2012 seeking an injunction stopping RIM and its employees from using the term BBM, as well as damages for infringement and punitive damages.

“We want our name back,” said Jim MacLeod, president and chief executive officer of BBM Canada. The group uses bbm.ca as its website and for its e-mail addresses, has used the letter combination BBM in its logo for more than six decades and owns the trademarks in both the U.S. and Canada

Mr. MacLeod said he first saw the BBM advertisements on a building in Times Square. Soon after, BBM Canada said its own employees started being mistaken for RIM employees, and that people began phoning its subsidiary company, BBM Analytics, for client support related to RIM’s messenger service.

 MacLeod said he offered to rebrand BBM Canada, if RIM covered the costs, but says he received no answer. A request for a meeting with one of RIM’s chief executives was similarly unsuccessful.

After reaching out to RIM and getting nowhere, Mr. MacLeod said BBM Canada was forced to file a lawsuit alleging trademark infringement.