SkyDrive Could be Renamed BingDrive, FetchDrive, and NewDrive Following UK Court Ruling

By Jane McEntegart
published

A SkyDrive by any other name...

Microsoft is apparently working out new names for SkyDrive after being ordered to stop using the 'SkyDrive' name by UK courts. WindowsPowerUser reports that BingDrive, FetchDrive, and NewDrive are all in the running. Prominent Windows blogger Paul Thurrott on Friday tweeted that the new name for SkyDrive would be NewDrive, though it's possible this could be a placeholder name until Microsoft decides.

Back in July, UK satellite company BSkyB, more commonly known as Sky, won a trademark infringement suit against Microsoft for the latter's use of the term 'SkyDrive' in Europe. Sky claimed infringement on Microsoft's use of 'SkyDrive' in all forms relating to cloud storage services because of its own cloud storage offering 'Sky Store & Share.' Though Sky Store & Share was wound down in 2011, Sky worried that users would be confused by SkyDrive.

Microsoft was given permission to use the SkyDrive name until it could find and transition to a new name. If there was a deadline, it wasn't published, but it looks like Microsoft is getting closer to making a decision.

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Jane McEntegart
26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    Simple solution: call it "Microsoft Drive" or maybe "Microsoft D:\>"
    Reply
  • BringMeAnother
    I don't think any of those three names is particularly good. How about xBoxDrive or OneDrive. I'm just goofing.
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    That really was a stupid ruling..
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    12029437 said:
    That really was a stupid ruling..
    Technology and dumb rulings unfortunately seem to go hand in hand.

    I dare not imagine how many innovative people's ideas are getting squashed or shackled by fears of getting screwed up by frivolous patents and trademarks from established players... it is already ugly enough when it happens between giants that can afford this nonsense.
    Reply
  • megajynx
    Yea, lemme go ahead and upload my sensitive documents to my BINGDrive. I can hear the shareholders cheers from here. At least call it BallmerDrive to be purposefully ironic.
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    12029519 said:
    12029437 said:
    That really was a stupid ruling..
    Technology and dumb rulings unfortunately seem to go hand in hand.

    I dare not imagine how many innovative people's ideas are getting squashed or shackled by fears of getting screwed up by frivolous patents and trademarks from established players... it is already ugly enough when it happens between giants that can afford this nonsense.

    Yeah, no kidding. It was a scary precedent when the world's two largest tech companies - Apple and Google - both started to put more money into patents than into the R&D departments. Though, it is a step in the right direction that Google has been the first major patent troll ever actually convicted - and hopefully far from the last, as every one of these big tech companies has dirty hands in this area. A lot of entry level companies with good ideas suffer because of this, and we all suffer as a result.

    As for the topic of this article itself, well, I'd say go with Bingdrive as it's all but impossible to have future patent infringements as a result, and Fetchdrive in particular sounds just stupid. Newdrive isn't bad I can't say I like it much. Calling it Bingdrive may well hurt adoption of the service - or improve Bing's name, since Skydrive is actually quite a good cloud service.
    Reply
  • rb420
    Funny I should come across this article almost immediately after removing skydrive from windows explorer in 8.1 via the registry.
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    I'm actually curious RB, why did you go to such ends to remove it? Was it causing you problems? As far as I can tell, if one doesn't want to use it, they can just ignore it. I could be wrong... Is there some insidious coding making it so that you can't avoid it even if you just save and load documents locally and ignore the option of using Skydrive?
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    12029662 said:
    I'm actually curious RB, why did you go to such ends to remove it? Was it causing you problems? As far as I can tell, if one doesn't want to use it, they can just ignore it. I could be wrong... Is there some insidious coding making it so that you can't avoid it even if you just save and load documents locally and ignore the option of using Skydrive?

    To keep the UI clean. I know I hate having icons sitting around taking up any screen real estate I have no use for and will do the same when I get around to upgrading to 8.1.

    Same goes for getting rid of the Windows button to access Metro. If it doesn't activate a Start menu it is pointless. It is much quicker to just hit the Windows key on the rare instance I use the Metro interface. Which is to search for infrequently used programs like Command Prompt and Run.

    It's also an annoying reminder of the unwanted push for cloud integration. Such as making it all but impossible for the average user to figure out how to setup 8.1 with a local account.
    Reply
  • Durandul
    How about MS Drive. Simple and doesn't misrepresent the feature unlike, I don't know, "Sky-Drive".
    Reply