Have you registered your business name as a Trade Mark? If not it’s time to do so.
You’d think that when a business has been trading for over a decade, been bought and sold, owned by eBay for a while and now owned by Microsoft would be pretty safe. Not so however, Skype have been denied a Trade Mark registration just in case they might be confused with Sky.
Far be it from me to say, I’m no expert, but would you confuse these two logos or think that perhaps you can watch a few box sets on Skype and make low cost phone calls through you computer via Sky?
Skype has become so synonymous with internet telephony that it’s become a verb and “I’ll Skype you” is a common turn of phrase. The name Skype is still to similar to Sky however, in the opinion of the EU General Court.
What does this all mean for you? Well quite simply register your business Trade Marks as early as possible. If nothing else if the Trade Mark registration is refused you can change your business name and logo before you are a worldwide recognised household name.
Skype don’t have to change their name or stop using the Skype brand, it simply means that they have no way to protect it against copy cats. However Microsoft do intend to appeal the EU General Court decision.
