Microsoft file hosting services, Skydrive will soon be re-branded as OneDrive. The move comes after a UK court found the “SkyDrive” brand infringed on a trademark owned by UK pay TV operator BSkyB.
BSkyB, as the service is more commonly called, filed suit against Microsoft in 2011 in the English High Court, successfully arguing that the “Sky” portion of its name could be confused with Microsoft’s own SkyDrive, and that Microsoft’s use of the name SkyDrive infringed Sky’s rights in the ‘Sky’ mark.
In June last year, Microsoft lost the case in England and Wales, and failed on appeal as well. As part of the agreement, Microsoft was given “a reasonable period of time to allow for an orderly transition to a new brand”.
The technology giant said in a blog post, “We know that increasingly you will have many devices in your life, but you really want only one place for your most important stuff. One place for all of your photos and videos. One place for all of your documents. One place that is seamlessly connected across all the devices you use. You want OneDrive for everything in your life. We believe the new OneDrive name conveys the value we can deliver for you and best represents our vision for the future. We are excited about what is to come, and can’t wait to share more.”
For current users of either SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro, the service will continue to operate as normal and all the content will be available on OneDrive and OneDrive for Business respectively as the new name is rolled out across the portfolio.
SkyDrive was first launched in 2007. It currently offers a free 7GB of storage space with the option of more storage space at a price.
Microsoft has not yet said when exactly OneDrive will fully replace SkyDrive as the name of the service, for now simply saying that the OneDrive brand is “coming soon”.
