Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) has sued Samsung for trademark infringement at the U.S. Federal Court in Los Angeles. The reason: not only does the Korean manufacturer's new BlackJack smartphone feature a similar form factor to RIM's venerable line of BlackBerry devices, but it has a similar name as well, according to RIM.

BlackJack is a slim and compact communicator with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard built on the Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone platform.


    Samsung BlackJack

If both companies are based outside the U.S., why would RIM file a lawsuit here? Because BlackJack is sold in this country. Cingular Wireless, which has long offered RIM's handhelds in the U.S., introduced the BlackJack about a month ago. It is the only operator in the world offering this particular Samsung smartphone right now.

According to RIM, BlackJack "constitutes false designation of origin, unfair competition, and trademark dilution". RIM's filing adds that "Samsung is misleading the public into falsely believing that Samsung's goods and services are connected with RIM's business."


          RIM BlackBerry

The suit also includes the ultra-slim Black Carbon mobile phone, which is not offered by a carrier in the U.S., ut is rather sold directly by Samsung. This handset looks nothing like a BlackBerry.

RIM requests that Samusng stop selling both the BlackJack and Black Carbon. It is also seeking unspecified damages.


         Samsung Black Carbon

With this suit, RIM appears to be laying claim to the word 'Black' when it is used in the name of any type of mobile handset. RIM is afraid that BlackJack may confuse some people. I'm not so sure people are so easily confused.

For its part, Cingular is staying above the fray and has no plans to stop selling the BlackJack. A Cingular representative said to PDAStreet it would be inappropriate for them to comment on the suit, as it doesn't involve the carrier.

In addition to launching BlackJack recently, Cingular of late started delivering the consumer-friendly BlackBerry Pearl, RIM's sleekest and most compact smartphone yet. T-Mobile held an exclusive on the Pearl from September until earlier this month.

More on BlackJack
As a Windows Smartphone and not a Pocket PC Phone, BlackJack doesn't feature a touch screen and is designed to view but not edit Microsoft Office documents. Unlike similar devices which use an application called ClearVue, BlackJack leverages Picsel Viewer, which is generally regarded as an improvement as a Microsoft Office viewer.

The quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM smartphone measures 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.5 inches (113 x 59 x 11.8 millimeters) and weighs a mere 3.5 ounces (100 grams). In addition to being a world phone, BlackJack will drop down to Cingular's more widely available 2.5G EDGE data network where UTMS/HSDPA isn't available.

BlackJack has a 2.3-inch, QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) and 65k color display, Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo headsets, a microSD slot for up to 2 GB of extra storage, 128 MB of ROM, 64 MB of RAM (31 MB user-available), a 220 MHz Samsung processor, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. For navigation, there’s a scroll wheel and cursor keys.

With its keyboard, BlackJack is geared — like other communicators, including the Q and Dash, the Symbian-based Nokia E62, Treo and the BlackBerry, which all these other devices emulate to some degree—towards messaging. In addition to the inclusion of Microsoft Direct Push technology, it is compatible with Good Mobile Messaging and Cingular Xpress Mail.

BlackJack also offers over-the-air synchronization of calendar, contact and to-do lists and access to enterprise applications. Of course, users can IM with bundled support for AIM, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo!, and send text messages as well.

In terms of multimedia, BlackJack delivers Cingular Music, a comprehensive audio serve with access to online subscription music content from eMusic, Napster and Yahoo. Cingular also delivers 25 XM Radio channels for $9 per month, music videos, a MusicID service that automatically identifies a song playing in the background through audio-recognition technology, and more. There's also support for Cingular Video, the operator’s on-demand streaming video service.

BlackJack goes for $199.99 with a two-year activation and unlimited data plan.