Europe won’t let Microsoft trademark the Skype name

Microsoft originally planned on its cloud storage service SkyDrive rather than OneDrive but had to abandon that plan after a legal battle with News Corp regarding the name, which the company claimed was too similar to one of its subsidiaries, which was known as British Sky Broadcasting at the time. Now that same issue is preventing Microsoft from being able to trademark the name Skype. 

Back in June 2013, Microsoft lost a trademark battle in the UK against News Corporation, owner of what was then known as British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), now Sky plc. News Corp had asserted that there was a high possibility of confusion between its Sky brand – which offers various mobile and web services as part of its portfolio – and that of Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service, and after considering an appeal against the court’s ruling, Microsoft instead rebranded the service as OneDrive. Fast forward to the present day, as Microsoft has lost a trademark ruling over its Skype brand in the European Union – although the immediate effects are far less problematic than those that led to the rebranding of SkyDrive. As BBC News reports, Microsoft had been attempting to register a trademark for the Skype name and logo in the EU – but today, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) prevented the company from doing so, on the grounds that the brand could potentially be confused with that of Sky.