Brandedlogodesigns Reviews | Skype Has Lost The Battle Against Sky
In the second Sky-related setback, Microsoft got banned from registering the trademark for Skype, its voice chat service, after being pushed to rename SkyDrive to One Drive.
It was ruled by an EU court that Microsoft’s Skype is too alike in terms of the name with Sky TV, which could possibly confuse the public.
The ruling keeps Microsoft from filing a trademark for its video, voice and text chat service Skype and its light blue bulb logo design in the EU, in the 2nd knockout against Microsoft centering on Sky-like names within these two years.
The case was brought about by Microsoft challenging 2012 & 2013 decisions by trademark authority of the EU, succeeding a complaint from Sky UK in 2005, formerly called British Sky Broadcasting.
Microsoft is unable to register Skype as its trademark, yet fortunately this time the company has not been forced to use its Skype name, contrasting the last tussle of US tech company with Sky on its cloud storage service once known as SkyDrive.
Microsoft’s argument that the name “Skype” is highly distinctive & had even entered the lexicon to identify voice over IP services was ignored by the court.
The ruling creates the possibilities for Sky UK to pursue Microsoft for the licensing fee for the name “sky” in Skype.
Courtroom battles tie current companies in legal knots, & sweeping rulings cramp innovation as well as deter invention. But considering what the past decade has shown, Sky is right to worry for the new branding confusion the next 10 years of convergence could yield.
