Today's "British people are dumb" post!
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Skype == Sky. If you're a moron.
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EU === Britain of course.
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EU === Britain of course.
AFAIAA, BSkyB only broadcasts in the UK; this ruling would only really be felt here.
The court said Skype's logo resembled a cloud
And that is relevant, why?
Video chat software Skype's name is so similar to the broadcaster Sky's that the public is likely to be confused between the two, an EU court has ruled.
Fuck off Brussels; we've been able to tell the difference for 12 years!
It's easy:
Sky ≡ TV, phone, and Internet provider
Skype ≡ Shitty alternative to an actual phone that runs a fucking webserver without asking for permissionJudges at the General Court of the European Union said: "Conceptually, the figurative element conveys no concept, except perhaps that of a cloud."
And the word 'Sky' in funky colours conveys nothing at all about satellite TV.
"[That] would further increase 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'."
Only by those who'd confuse a dog with a skyscraper.
In theory, Sky could now try to pursue Microsoft for a licensing fee even if it did not want to block the use of Skype's name outright.
For using an entirely different word? What next, BSkyB going after skydiving operators? Or do they want to obliterate skywriters first?
"Our intention has been to protect the Sky brand with our research showing that similarities in name and logo have the potential to confuse customers."
Translation: We're going to use all our money to bully everyone else into changing product names or give us lots of money.
BSkyB has guaranteed I'll never be a customer of theirs.
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I know, they could rename it to Lync.
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And that is relevant, why?
Because clouds are in the sky, and British Sky Broadcasting. Also of note is that the color of the cloud bubble is sky blue -- though not BSkyB Blue.
Sky ≡ TV, phone, and Internet
providercartel.
Skype ≡ Shitty TV and phone provider, that runs on the Internet.What next, BSkyB going after skydiving operators? Or do they want to obliterate skywriters first?
Not sure, both eventually. You can blame its parent company, News Corporation. Who should be contacting Accalia soon about her avatar infringing on one of their major brands by being vulpine.I know, they could rename it to Lync.
Or, and I'm just throwing this out here, MSN Messenger. Tagline: It's better with the butterfly.
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Because clouds are in the sky, and British Sky Broadcasting. Also of note is that the color of the cloud bubble is sky blue -- though not BSkyB Blue.
But like I said, we've been able to tell the difference for 12 years; why is it suddenly an issue?
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Note it seems Sky is not trying to get Skype to change their name - they just don't want Skype to become a registered trademark. Likely to nip future conflicts in the bud.
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Because Microsoft is trying to officially register it now, which they haven't been for the past 12 years.
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Not going well for MS then
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Because Microsoft is trying to officially register it now, which they haven't been for the past 12 years.
You didn't read the article very carefully:
Microsoft had brought the case to challenge an earlier ruling by the European Union's Office for Harmonisation of Internal Markets, which, following a 2005 complaint by the broadcaster, also said Skype branding was too similar to Sky's to be granted an EU-wide trademark.
This all started around 2005.
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This doesn't prove anything about British people. It reveals a whole slew of idiocy in intellectual property (IP) laws. (Which, BTW, are primarily a creation of the good old USA, if you want to point to idiots.)
You have to understand that this is not about the similarity of the names. It's about keeping Microsoft out of the EU. They could rename the product DJKLDKAJDJHREUFHGFS and they'd be sued by companies claiming conflicts on "JKL", "KAJ", "AJD", "HRE" and "GFS"; and the EU directorate would nail them for the "EU".
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BSkyB apparently owns a concept that has existed since long before language.
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or so their lawyers will tell you at least.
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Unfortunately it's too late for me to form a political party and stand in the general election on the platform of 'renewing Trident and immediately using it on the entire EU'.
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"In 2014, Microsoft changed the name of its cloud storage service from SkyDrive to OneDrive after the High Court in London ruled Sky's trademark had been infringed."
I wondered why that happened.Comment:
"I was under the impression the film "Skyfall" would be about a Sky TV outage, but in actual fact it had nothing to do with Sky or the corporation itself. Can the courts please look into this, as I imagine I wasn't the only one confused and wholly disappointed by such a misleading title."
Lol
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Someone should take on Sky on their own name. IIRC, the card game "Magic: The Gathering" had to change it s name to that after they originally wanted to use only the name "Magic" but was rejected due to it being a word that is too commonplace
