Microsoft Will Have To Rename SkyDrive 274
SmartAboutThings writes "A month ago, Microsoft was involved in a legal battle in the United Kingdom, when the court found that there was a conflict between Microsoft's SkyDrive and a trademark owned by the British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB). Back then, the UK court ruled that Microsoft was infringing the BSkyB's trademark. And now we have confirmation that Microsoft will be forced to change the SkyDrive brand name. This is quite a big branding issue for Microsoft. What are they going to call it? DriveSky? And chances are that the name change will be worldwide and not only in the United Kingdom."
Re:Good to see (Score:3, Insightful)
The arrogance of a big player is punished when deserved.
Because Sky Broadcasting is such a small timer...
No arrogance here, just the assumption that people could tell the difference between a media conglomerate with an overreaching opinion of its' self worth and some cloud service.
Re:Good to see (Score:4, Insightful)
Call it by a traditional Microsoft name (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft Cloud Drive Storage Home Edition
Microsoft Cloud Drive Storage Premium Edition
Microsoft Cloud Drive Storage Enterprise Edition
Re:Good to see (Score:4, Insightful)
Sky vs Windows (Score:2, Insightful)
Microsoft must have realized that arguing "Sky" is a generic word, so is "Windows". That means they'd be shooting themselves in the foot by arguing that Sky (and thus Windows) isn't trademark-able.
Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm seeing a bit too much anti-Microsoft bias here. If we weren't talking about Microsoft I'm pretty sure we'd all be outraged by that court's decision, especially given the reaction on Slashdot to similar cases in the past.
Where was Microsoft irresponsible here? Who in their right mind would have thought that SkyDrive infringed on British Sky Broadcasting Group? Does any company or service with "sky" in the name also infringe? What about SkyTrain? Or Delta Sky Miles?
I fail to see how Microsoft did anything wrong here.
I've done naming for companies in the past and it can be an excruciating process. I'm pretty sure a company as big as Microsoft isn't cavalier about naming. If my clients are any indication, their own lawyers are a huge pain in the ass for the internet teams to deal with. They're specifically paid to be thorough and attuned to every little risk. I can't imagine how much more difficult it will be now coming up with a new name with the heightened sensitivity to even the remotest of infringement. I certainly wouldn't want to be on that naming team.
Re:Good to see (Score:2, Insightful)
> There really should be a single, global registry for all trademarks, because, with the internet, every business is a global business.
That fact that a corporation can hijack language and have an artificial monopoly on a word is bullshit to begin with.
Re:How about... (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, much as I might like some Microsoft bashing, I think it's dumb to criticize a technology company for copying others. In science and technology, you're *supposed* to build off of other people's work. Otherwise, you're reinventing the wheel.
So if you're going to criticize Microsoft for copying others, it only makes sense to me if they make a substandard copy that offers no advantages. Even if it's an equivalent copy to the best thing around, that's still doing a pretty good job.
Re:Good to see (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not on BSkyB,
BSkyB is a shortform for British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC.
They use "Sky" in branding for all sorts of stuff, notably Sky Broadband and Sky Subscriber Services (which is their TV offering).
In that context, an internet cloud service calling itself Sky-something sounds like it's part of the Sky services, which it of course isn't. And Microsoft has no real claim on the 'Sky' brand, so they're SOL.