BlackBerry maker RIM has been forced to change the name of its next-generation operating system from BBX to BlackBerry 10 after software company Basis International won a temporary restraining order preventing the company from using the BBX branding.

A US Federal Court in Albuquerque ruled that BBX is an incontestable federally-registered trademark belonging to Basis International, meaning RIM is unable to use it at its Asian DevCon event in Singapore this week. RIM had previously refused to drop the name for the conference, prompting Basis to request the legal order.

A RIM statement seen by Reuters said the company now plans to use the BlackBerry 10 name for its next generation mobile platform, while the new name was referred to in a company tweet from the conference.

RIM’s new OS – announced in October – combines elements of the BlackBerry 7 OS with the QNX platform seen on the vendor's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Shortly after the unveiling of BBX, New Mexico-based Basis International said it had trademarked the same name and threatened legal action.

The court ruling said despite the two companies not being direct competitors, the two BBX products are “highly related and target the same class of consumers”, reports Reuters.

"The alleged infringement is likely to cause customers and prospective customers to wrongly believe that the software applications created using Basis's development tools are only compatible with RIM's BBX operating system,” the ruling added.