European court rules Skype’s name is too similar to UK based Sky broadcaster

[Lazmarr]

 

Someone either needs to go back to law school, or school itself. In no way do i see those two as being similar, nor would i ever confuse the two... What is wrong with these people. 

We must "Believe In Better"  -

[LlamaDom]

Fucking Rupert Murdoch scummbaggery. They are literally doing this in the hope that they will be able to license out the name for huge amounts of money.  I feel sad that the EU which prides itself on being progressive still lets this sort of childish shit happen.

[NumLock21]

More and more I am starting to see a pattern of the EU courts becoming a boys club whos sole agenda is to prevent US companies from competing with European ones. The list of borderline calls is starting to grow.

 

1. you can't bundle an internet browser with your product.

2. you can't choose what connector you put on your phone

3. You cannot control the apps that run on your OS.

4. you are not allowed to keep your world recognized branding because it has three letters the same another company half the world hasn't heard of.

5. You can't bundle windows media play with your product. The reason they have the N edition of the OS.

[sof006]

5. You can't bundle windows media play with your product. The reason they have the N edition of the OS.

Its freaking dumb! I am sick of the EU making up these dumb as hell rules. More prominently they're used to pick on Microsoft as I have noticed over the last year or so. I hope the EU realises that without Microsoft the majority of computing technology would be nothing like what it is today. 

[Agosto]

So, when are we going to see a law action against SKYY vodka?

lol

[DIV1D3]

Nek minute... SkyPlus 

[LAwLz]

Sky is a company that actively serves content to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. It is perfectly understandable for the EU to make this decision despite Skype being a well established brand.

And as I pointed out before, the lawsuit started back when Skype was not an established brand. So the question is, should the judgement be based on when a complain is filed or when it reaches a conclusion?

The ruling would have made a lot more sense if it was back when Sky originally filed it (Skype was just a few years old and not that popular). Should Sky suffer because the lawsuit got dragged put several years?

Personally I think the ruling is stupid, but the reason it ended up being stupid is because the extremely long time it took them to come to a conclusion.

[OPSJono]

Inb4 Onepe

While reading the OP I instantly though this. ^^ you inb4'd me!

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

More and more I am starting to see a pattern of the EU courts becoming a boys club whos sole agenda is to prevent US companies from competing with European ones. The list of borderline calls is starting to grow.

 

1. you can't bundle an internet browser with your product.

2. you can't choose what connector you put on your phone

3. You cannot control the apps that run on your OS.

4. you are not allowed to keep your world recognized branding because it has three letters the same another company half the world hasn't heard of.

 

I agree on 1, 3 and 4.  Not 2 though. 

Proprietary connectors were a menace and produced loads of garbage (and I mean that literally, you almost always had to throw the old charger away if you bought a new phone). 

At least now you can use the same charger for just about every type of phone and don't need to look around for someone who has a Samsung charger or a Nokia charger or a Sony Ericsson charger.  A simple Micro USB is all you need now and nearly everyone has that ... well, apart from the iPhone users of course.  But that was to be expected really.  As a wise man once said : "some mother****ers are always trying to ice-skate uphill". 

[NumLock21]

Its freaking dumb! I am sick of the EU making up these dumb as hell rules. More prominently they're used to pick on Microsoft as I have noticed over the last year or so. I hope the EU realises that without Microsoft the majority of computing technology would be nothing like what it is today.

They have been picking on Microsoft for a long long time.https://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/timeline.en.html

[jaggysnake57]

man you lot are clueless, its not about confusing Sky with Skype,  its weather people could be mislead in to thinking Skype was a sky product. you also need to realize that most people that use Skype are not technologically minded, given that Skype is available on phones tablets and even smart tvs. its not a big jump to assume people with little knowledge of tech could come to the conclusion that Skype is in some way related to Sky. 

 

oh and BTW, Americans bitching about stupid lawsuits.....are you fucking kidding me, this from the country that allowed people with cancer to sue tobacco firms and fat people to sue McDonald's, not to mention the lawsuits regarding net neutrality...really 

 

 

seriously so freaking what. skype has to change there name....who cares

[samcool55]

If you say sky, i think of the sky OUTSIDE in the REAL WORLD. Yea EU u don't know that that is do ya?

Maybe we should launch the EU court to there. So they will learn what sky is.

And if they don't, we'll just leave them there.

 

Just mad that stupid companies can do whatever they want.

 

Tbh i have never heard of sky broadcaster whatever. ISP? TV station? Who cares?

[simson0606]

they should buy sky just to make them shut the **** up

[Ena]

they are buying a fight they cant win in my opinion.

[duriel]

sky's logo looks like SLCY

 

anyway they have zero grounds here.

[NumLock21]

seriously so freaking what. skype has to change there name....who cares

How about telling SKY change its name, or better off find better ways to promote itself, so people out there will know who they are, instead acting like a 3 year old cry baby.

[jaggysnake57]

How about telling SKY change its name, or better off find better ways to promote itself, so people out there will know who they are, instead acting like a 3 year old cry baby.

 

i love the irony of you calling sky a cry baby in that reply.  well my intellectually challenged little friend, maybe sky should keep its name because it was founded in 1989, where as skype was founded some 14 years later, just a thought.

 

oh and as for promote its self better....well sky in the uk is the largest pay tv provider by some margin. it has 10 million plus subscribers compared to its closest rival with 3.7 million....i think there well known enough.

 

if i were you, i wouldn't chime in in subjects you 0 knowledge about.....

 

[Gr0egercesg]

It makes me hate my ISP slightly more...

[A.D.A.M]

How would you be mistaken that Skype is part of sky... Isn't sky a broadcaster, I have that sky News channel. Plus Microsoft's banner is like plastered all around Skype's website. All you'd get is people being confused when their Skype suddenly changed names...

[Simons]

Who the hell is ''Sky'' and why does they want Skype to change their name..?

IMO this is another case of butthurt when it comes to names, get over it. Its similiar, not the same.

[spartaman64]

man you lot are clueless, its not about confusing Sky with Skype,  its weather people could be mislead in to thinking Skype was a sky product. you also need to realize that most people that use Skype are not technologically minded, given that Skype is available on phones tablets and even smart tvs. its not a big jump to assume people with little knowledge of tech could come to the conclusion that Skype is in some way related to Sky. 

 

oh and BTW, Americans bitching about stupid lawsuits.....are you fucking kidding me, this from the country that allowed people with cancer to sue tobacco firms and fat people to sue McDonald's, not to mention the lawsuits regarding net neutrality...really 

 

 

seriously so freaking what. skype has to change there name....who cares

could they just put a disclaimer in that says not a product of sky or put a big microsoft logo somewhere 

[mr moose]

I agree on 1, 3 and 4.  Not 2 though. 

Proprietary connectors were a menace and produced loads of garbage (and I mean that literally, you almost always had to throw the old charger away if you bought a new phone). 

At least now you can use the same charger for just about every type of phone and don't need to look around for someone who has a Samsung charger or a Nokia charger or a Sony Ericsson charger.  A simple Micro USB is all you need now and nearly everyone has that ... well, apart from the iPhone users of course.  But that was to be expected really.  As a wise man once said : "some mother****ers are always trying to ice-skate uphill". 

 

I don't see how that gives any court the right to tell a company what connector to use.  If you want a phone with a standardised connector then buy one.  I have been using mobile phones since 1994 and haven't had any problems, every phone comes with a charger anyway so I really don't see how it's an issue. 

 

EDIT: and on top of that, what law did apple break that warranted the courts to order them to change their plug?  Was it IP infringement? nope, was it anti competitive? nope, their plug has no ill effects on the consumer or competition.  Was it unfairly creating a monopoly? nope, to do that a consumer must not have a choice, going on phone sales alone there is no way you can argue consumers don't have a choice.

[linuxfan66]

I don't see how that gives any court the right to tell a company what connector to use.  If you want a phone with a standardised connector then buy one.  I have been using mobile phones since 1994 and haven't had any problems, every phone comes with a charger anyway so I really don't see how it's an issue. 

 

EDIT: and on top of that, what law did apple break that warranted the courts to order them to change their plug?  Was it IP infringement? nope, was it anti competitive? nope, their plug has no ill effects on the consumer or competition.  Was it unfairly creating a monopoly? nope, to do that a consumer must not have a choice, going on phone sales alone there is no way you can argue consumers don't have a choice.

It did stop waste of equipment by making it sharable between device more. i can take, leave, hate the eu's other dumb ideas, but this idea was worth cost by keeping charger waste under control

[Dabombinable]

Sky TV = Skype apparently. Hmm, and Foxtel hasn't been sued for having a name too similar to Fox. The European courts are targeting Microsoft.

[DeViLzzz]

The world gets more and more ridiculous every single day thanks to commerce among other things.  The European Court's ruling here is ridiculous.