The name of Research in Motion's next operating system, BBX, is already taken and a New Mexico company using the BBx prefix on its products has sent a notice to the BlackBerry maker not to use it to avoid confusing the public.

Basis International said its lawyer sent RIM a cease and desist letter, which has yet to be received by the Canadian firm.
Basis CEO Nico Spence said the company wants to protect its business.

"We are fielding numerous customer inquiries voicing their confusion about the RIM announcement," Spence said in a statement on the Basis Web site. The company uses the BBx prefix in products that run on Windows, Linux and Mac," Spence said, according to CNET.com.

The Basis challenge to RIM came two days after the latter launched the BBX OS in a developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said the BBX OS offers developers the best of both BlackBerry and QNX OS because it will be easier for them to build apps and sell these on the BlackBerry App World.

An initial response from RIM said: "We do not believe the marks are confusing, particularly since our respective companies are in different lines of business," the company said in a statement issued to CNET.