Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., fighting a legal battle to preserve its BlackBerry e-mail service in the U.S., is worried about other fruit in the market.

The Canadian company has filed two lawsuits in the past four months over ``berry'' names on products. On Nov. 10, it sued the software company BackOffice Associates, whose technology division is called Cranberry. It is also suing toymaker Sakar International Inc., which sells organizers with the names StrawBerry, BlueBerry, GreyBerry, GrapeBerry and GooseBerry.

Research In Motion has turned the BlackBerry e-mail pager into a ubiquitous sight on Wall Street and in Congress, with 3.65 million subscribers worldwide as of Aug. 27. The supposedly addictive nature of the devices has spawned the nickname ``CrackBerry.'' It has also spawned copycat names, according to the suits.

The similarly named products are ``clearly intended to trade on the substantial goodwill that RIM has developed in its BlackBerry'' name, the suit against BackOffice contends. Both trademark-infringement lawsuits were filed in Dallas.

Will Crump, director of enterprise sales at Brewster, Massachusetts-based BackOffice, said he doesn't believe his customers, which include Lucent Technologies Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, will believe there's a link between Cranberry business software and BlackBerry devices.

``Our purpose was never to cause any confusion,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``We're a company based on Cape Cod. We've got cranberry bogs all over the place.''

Berrys for Children

Sakar, based in Edison, New Jersey, makes hand-held organizers for children that, according to the suit, some reports have described as resembling the BlackBerry. As a result of the suit against it filed in August, Sakar has pledged to change the names of its Cyber Gear toys to remove the berries, said Sakar lawyer Ezra Sutton. They were just descriptions of the colors, he said.

``They don't own all berries. The berries describe the color,'' Sutton said today in an interview. The company is making the change ``because we don't want to have a fight with BlackBerry. We feel a little sorry for them these days.''

Research In Motion's biggest legal battle is in Richmond, Virginia, where it is trying to settle or overturn a patent- infringement verdict. Research In Motion, based in Waterloo, Canada, offered to pay patent owner NTP Inc. $450 million to end the case. That deal fell through, and a judge is being asked to rule on whether that offer was an enforceable settlement.

Justice Department

If there is no settlement, the judge will rule on NTP's request that the BlackBerry service be shut down in the U.S. by court order.

The Justice Department has filed court papers to ensure it isn't affected by any injunction. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is taking a second look the NTP patents to see if they should be canceled.

U.S. shares of Research in Motion rose 54 cents to $67.33 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

The trademark suits are Research In Motion Ltd. v. BackOffice Associates Inc., 05cv2204, and Research In Motion Ltd. v. Sakar International Inc., 05cv1581, both U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

To contact the reporter on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 14, 2005 16:23 EST