Europe is a rather hostile market for large companies technology (see Google and Microsoft). The latter had to pay a fairly large fine in 2011 for violations of antitrust laws. But the problems they do not seem to be over.
According to the BBC, the General Court of the European Unions ruled that Microsoft cannot register as commercial signal the name Skype in Europe because the name is very similar to "Sky", which is now part of the Sky Broadcasting group, also known as BSkyB or Sky News Corporation.
Basically, the judge said Micronsoft's Skype name could be confused with Sky, so the trademark can not be registered.
This does not mean that Microsoft will have to renamed Skype directly, but it may have to do so within the next few months to avoid paying a fee to the UK company holding the rights to Sky.
Microsoft has already voiced its intention to appeal the court decision and has stated that it will not re-name Skype until the final decision of the appeal is announced.
"We are convinced that there is confusion between these two brands and services and we will appeal. "This decision does not require us to change the names of our products in any way," said a company spokesman.
Sky, on the other hand, says it is a fair decision, because the similarities between the two names might actually confuse its European customers ....
Let us remind you that this is not the first time that Microsoft loses a litigation from the same company as it has been forced to renaming SkyDrive to OneDrive because its name was similar to Sky.
To see this time, will I change my name to Skype?
