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Court says Skype's name is too similar to Sky's
- pejoculant 11y agoWow, they literally "own the sky".
- sybasesaviour 11y agoRather, Rupert Murdoch "owns the uk."
- nathanaldensr 11y agoNot literally; otherwise, they could charge you to breathe in the EU. They own the trademark and its association with the sky.
- pejoculant 11y agoOk,ok but "own the term sky" doesn't sound as nice.
- orf 11y agoSeems like Sky has a thing for Microsoft - first they were forced to rename SkyDrive to OneDrive and now this.
- k-mcgrady 11y agoOr does Microsoft have a thing for Sky? I don't see in this case how their could be any confusion considering how long Skype has been around and how well known it is but in the SkyDrive case I can see how that makes sense considering Sky is an ISP and it is possible they could have a product named SkyDrive.
- cowsandmilk 11y agoOr neither, since the initial challenge of Skype occurred before Microsoft even bought the company. Sky just seems to love challenging everything similar.
- rbehrends 11y agoSky has been around even longer (since 1990) and they offer telephone services also [1]. (I still don't buy that there's a risk of confusion.) [1] http://www.sky.com/products/broadband-talk/talk/features/ http://www.sky.com/products/broadband-talk/talk/features/
- rxdazn 11y agoThey have a thing for anything that starts with Sky. Some years ago they forced one of the biggest french blogging platform to rename from Skyblog to Skyrock (Skyrock is the name of the radio station that was providing the service).
- luma 11y agoIt seems more that EU courts have a thing for successful US technology companies.
- mauricemir 11y agoWhere is the Late Peter Cook when you need him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyos-M48B8U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyos-M48B8U For background there was a court case back in the 70's (the leader of a political party was accused of arranging a contract killing on his gay lover) a high profile court case with an outrageously biased judge.
- dikaiosune 11y agoI'm still befuddled that you can trademark a name like Sky or Apple. I'm more befuddled that the EU courts would block registration of a trademark that is already widely known as a brand name and that the plaintiff in this case isn't even challenging as an infringement on their trademark.
- IgorPartola 11y agoWhy not trademark Apple? To me "Apple" is different from "apple" and very different from "The Apple Pie Guys" or even "Apple Manufacturing". What I'd like to see is the clarification that trademarking a word like "Apple" should mean exact spelling. In this manner someone should be able to trademark "Apples" as a separate concept. The need for this was highlighted in the Elder Scrolls vs Mojang debacle. "Scrolls" and "Elder Scrolls" are different things and nobody calls the latter just Scrolls.
- ajross 11y agoOr Apple Records: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer People forget that Jobs and Woz started a company in an already-vibrant economy, and there was another powerful "Apple" out there already.
- eueueu 11y agoIt gets even worse if you look at colour trademarking. eg Cadbury "own" the colour purple when it comes to chocolate. Orange also have a trademark on using the colour orange when operating a mobile phone business and had a spat with Easy about it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3555398.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3555398.stm
- josho 11y agoBut, your example is the entire point about trademarks. It provides protection, from copycats or generic rip offs, this is a good thing. For example, lovers of Cadbury chocolate know that any purple wrapped chocolate will be Cadbury. They can quickly spot their chocolate in the store and don't need to worry about ever buying a cheap imitation chocolate purple candy bar from CadMury. This is good for both consumers and businesses* This works because there is nothing that intrinsically links purple to chocolate. Cadbury created that association, they invested in it, and through trademark's they are protected from knock offs confusing their brand. *Though I don't understand why many businesses then destroy their own brand by including sub-brands of lower quality. E.g. A purple cadbury chocolate bar that is sugar free--I'm sure we've all unknowingly bought the wrong sub-brand like this at some point in time.
- cnvogel 11y agoThat's satire, right? Right? ❝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'.❞ Not really related, but it reminds me of another funny occurrence concerning trademarks: O2 (the phone company) sued Weinmann GmbH (a medical device company). Weinmann used the string O2 in a product that delivers oxygen to patients... (http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.physics/2005-03/8371.html http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.physics/2005-03/8371...) Sometimes I question inhofar "common sense" prevails in these trademark-ruling courts.
- bad_user 11y agoSkype was released in 2003 and personally I don't associate it with "sky". If Skype can't be trademark, then the trademark law is broken.
- danbruc 11y agoFor context - Sky was founded in 1991 but then named Premiere and only rebranded to Sky in 2009.
- notahacker 11y agoNot sure where you're getting that from. BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting) was formed in 1991 as part of a merger involving a pre existing Sky Television, and BSkyB and its successor Sky plc has used Sky (as a standalone word) in the name and logo of most of its TV channels (Sky Sports, Sky Movies, Sky News etc.) and other service offerings (Sky Talk, Sky Broadband, Sky Bet) continuously since then.
- danbruc 11y agoMaybe I should not just have skimmed the article. The rest was same logo, same company and limited knowledge of the history.
- IshKebab 11y agoErr, no it wasn't? BSkyB has been around since 1990 and has been colloquially known as Sky since then.
- currysausage 11y agoThat would be Sky Deutschland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Deutschland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Deutschland
- tamagokun 11y agoThis is what happens when you name your company something like "Sky" or "Paper"
- higherpurpose 11y agoApparently you win. It's the later derivatives that lose.
- skj 11y agoMore nonsense protectionism from EU power brokers.
- krzyk 11y agoNot EU, but UK protectionism, they do a lot different than guys on the mainland. Skype was created in EU (ok almost, created in Estonia few months before it joined EU).
- ubernostrum 11y agoNot EU, but UK protectionism From TFA: "General Court of the European Union", and got there because the ruling was the same at the European Union's Office for Harmonisation of Internal Markets.
- Someone1234 11y agoThere are 82 English dictionary words that contain the word "Sky." 63 of those words start with the word "Sky." Therefore by logical extension of this ruling, they have at minimum given Sky free trademarks on 82 additional words. That doesn't even include made up words like "Skype." These types of decisions are going to massively limit the number of trademarkable words available for businesses to register in general. It wasn't even like Sky and Skype are directly competing with one another (VoIP/Chat/Video over Ip Vs. Satellite TV). Or that Skype was trying to feed off of Sky's reputation or brand. This ruling is simply terrible. It is terrible within itself and sets an even worse precedent. The EU needs to pass additional laws clarifying this so that courts cannot reach these kind of conclusions.
- SoftwareMaven 11y agoIt wasn't even like Sky and Skype are directly competing with one another (VoIP/Chat/Video over Ip Vs. Satellite TV). That's what I thought, too, until a co-worker corrected me. Sky does have phone service, though[1]. 1. http://www.sky.com/products/broadband-talk/talk/features/ http://www.sky.com/products/broadband-talk/talk/features/
- notatoad 11y agoWhich came first though? Skype was on of the first VoIP providers out there, if Sky moved into Skype's market after-the-fact, aren't they the ones violating Skype's trademark
- josho 11y agoThe article doesn't really say why the decision came down the way it did. Without knowing the details I agree that it seems strange, as a TV channel and a phone platform don't seem easily confusable, however look at it this way: Sky is a broadcaster for transmitting video and audio to many people. Skype is a communication platform for transmitting video and audio between groups of people. With that description I can now see why Sky won the trademark case. I still don't agree with the decision, but at least now it doesn't seem so crazy.
- pzxc 11y ago
- gr8b8m8-88 11y agoTIL in Europe you are literally not allowed to pe under the sky.
- JimmaDaRustla 11y agoFirst SkyDrive, now Skype? What is this company's deal with attacking Microsoft and others over a very very generic word? For what it's worth, Sky is only 60% of Skype, and Skype has 2 more letters.
- frik 11y agoAlso MS "Metro" UI nowadays named "Modern UI": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_UI#Name_change http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_UI#Name_change Metro Group, Germany's largest retailer, had something against it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_AG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_AG). Yet, it's an abbreviation of "metropolitan" and is used for many other things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro
- wvenable 11y agoMicrosoft should have never backed down on this one.
- UntitledNo4 11y agoMetro AG owns Media Markt and Saturn[1], both sell electronics, including computers. Judging by their stores, most of these computers are PCs (although they do sell Apple computers as well). Media Markt, is Europe's largest retailer of consumer electronics[2]. Saturn is one of the big retailers of consumer electronics in Germany, and have stores in some other European countries[3]. So perhaps Microsoft could have won that one, but at what cost? Pissing off one of their biggest retailers? I don't know for sure, but it seems very likely that Microsoft wouldn't want to do that and made the decision to back off instead. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_AG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_AG [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Markt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Markt [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(store) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(store)
- wvenable 11y agoThe thing is Microsoft's Metro isn't even a product, it's just a name for a technology. Why should this company even care. The whole is ridiculous and that's why Microsoft should not have backed down on it.
- sosborn 11y agoIt is like saying "Hat" is too similar to "Hate".
- andor 11y agoSince Skype is by far the more popular (and important) service, I suppose "Sky" should change their name ;-) http://www.skymedia.co.uk/Audience-Insight/dashboard.aspx http://www.skymedia.co.uk/Audience-Insight/dashboard.aspx
- notahacker 11y agoDepends how you define important; Sky's $18bn market cap is testament to their customers spending an awful lot more money on satellite television and telephone landlines than on VOIP calls. Neither party will change their name in the near future, and the lawyers from both companies that have made a lot of money fighting each other will be equally keen to make more money stomping on anyone with the temerity to start an EU-based VOIP service with a name like SkyPeer or SkyBe
- userbinator 11y agoAre they also going to go after the two dozen or so airlines that have 'Sky' in their name...?
- SG- 11y agoReminds me of this back in the 2003 where Microsoft went after a high school kid for having the domain mikerowesoft.com (his name being Mike Rowe): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft It ended alright for Mike Rowe in the end, but Microsoft only offered $10 originally and accused him of cybersquatting which was false. It was only after a bunch of press that he got some decent return.
- praeivis 11y agoskype well known world wide. sky known only in UK. I am from europe, and only remember sky exist when MS decide change skydrive to onedrive, or when skype not allowed get trademark.