Last month we reported that BSkyB won a UK legal case complaining about Microsoft's SkyDrive product name infringing upon the TV and media company's trademarks. The judge concluded and agreed with BSkyB's complaint, saying that Microsoft's use of the SkyDrive name was likely to cause confusion among consumers. Since that time Microsoft has put in an appeal and the appeal has failed. Following the appeal failure Redmond has decided to rename the SkyDrive service globally rather than just in the UK/Europe.
Some people phoned Sky for technical support for using SkyDrive
In a joint statement Microsoft and BSkyB said "The settlement of this case reflects the desire of both companies to focus on joint projects to benefit their customers." Microsoft went further in expressing how happy it was that it lost the court case; "We’re glad to have resolution of this naming dispute, and will continue to deliver the great service our hundreds of millions of customers expect, providing the best way to always have your files with you," said MS in its own company statement.
However as PCWorld points out there will be definite costs to Microsoft due to this court case appeal loss. Firstly the settlement includes "financial and other terms", perhaps Microsoft agreed to pay BSkyB something for its infringement over the last few years and some kind of 'subscription fee' in the transition period. Details of these terms are not published or written about in statements from either company. Secondly Microsoft will incur significant costs in renaming, rebranding and rewriting anything and everything the company previously referred to as SkyDrive.
With SkyDrive more and more heavily integrated into Windows, we have seen it much more closely knit into Windows 8.1, it is lucky that Microsoft has been given a "reasonable amount of time" by BSkyB to implement its changes.
