Domain name records have shown that BlackBerry maker RIM has bought the blackpad.com domain name.

Found by mobile phone website Mobilecrunch, the site has been tipped off to a WHOIS lookup that shows the Canadian company bought the domain just days ago.

Up until now, the blackpad.com domain name has had a fairly uneventful life being held, but not used by the same individual since 2002.

Going to the site currently shows a blank page with virtually no HTML coding to suggest anything more.

The news comes off the back of an announcement on Tuesday that the company has scheduled a press event on the 3 August to unveil a new product, which many believed would be a new BlackBerry slider going under the 9800 moniker.

However, this new evidence could suggest that the company could be about to attempt to go up against Apple and its iPad with a BlackBerry OS 6 powered tablet device for business folk.

Of course, it goes without saying that this could be a massive diversion tactic, with RIM trying to throw journalists off the scent. Maybe the company is about to launch a new service based around the idea that it's a cool website or "pad" to hang out at.

What do you think it could be? Let us know in the comments below.