Here we go again. Another battle between Sky and Microsoft and, after a lengthy case, the court has agreed with Sky.
What’s the problem? Well, somehow, it would seem that Skype ..
… could be mistaken for Sky..
This isn’t the first time that Sky have thrown their weight around. A couple of years ago they forced Microsoft to change the name of SkyDrive to OneDrive because it could be confused with a Sky TV / broadband / phone / cloud product.
Now an EU court has ruled that Microsoft’s Skype is too similar to Sky, which will prevent Microsoft from registering a trademark for the name and bubble logo. Microsoft will of course appeal, but judges have stated that the Skype bubbles could be interpreted as a cloud….. and clouds.. are .. in…. the… sky..
[This] would further increase the likelihood of the element ‘Sky’ being recognised within the word element ‘Skype’, for clouds are to be found ‘in the sky’ and thus may readily be associated with the word ‘sky’.
Microsoft have no plans to rename Skype, as the case is only concerned with the registration of a trademark.