Data Backup Digest

It seems that the legal proceedings around Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service are coming to an end. The corporation’s service has been around since 2007, but in the coming weeks it will be renamed to OneDrive.

The case first started in June 2011 when Sky, a TV broadcaster owned by News Corporation, sought to stop Microsoft using the name SkyDrive throughout the European Union. Sky believed that consumer’s would confuse the cloud service for one of their products.

Primarily a TV service, Sky continues to expand their platform in order to gain ground in other media. For example, they offer online streaming and mobile applications that make use of the cloud. In fact, Sky did at one point have their own cloud storage service called Store & Share, this closed down at the end of 2011 after just three years of operation.

Microsoft initially countered Sky’s claims on account of “descriptiveness for cloud storage services”, but the judge ruling over the case concluded that the reach of the Sky brand could cause consumers to think that SkyDrive brand. Additionally, it was stated that the SkyDrive name would be detrimental to the Sky brand, meaning that Microsoft were infringing on copyright.

Eventually, however, Microsoft conceded and agreed to rename SkyDrive. Although the ruling only affects Europe, Microsoft has decided to rebrand globally, presumably to streamline the service and not confuse consumers. That new name is OneDrive.

Microsoft have launched a {{https://preview.onedrive.com/|new website}} to announce that OneDrive is coming soon and that it will be “an even better place to store and share” your data, claiming that “OneDrive is everything you love about SkyDrive and more”. Whether this means that OneDrive will offer some new features is currently unknown.

In the first blog post under the OneDrive name, the team drove home the reason for the name choice. This is a service that they hope you’ll be using for everything. It is the only place that you need to store your data and will be connected across all your devices. Additionally, although the blog post doesn’t say it, the new name links well with Microsoft’s latest games console, the Xbox One.

“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,” continues the blog post.

The blog post only touches briefly on why the name change has come about, subtly linking to a news article about the court case.

Current users of SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro (the latter of which is now going to be called OneDrive for Business) have nothing to worry about. The service will continue to run as normal and all of your data will be available on OneDrive when the name change rolls out.

Users can navigate to the OneDrive preview site and submit their email address in order to be informed when OneDrive is ready and available to use. Chances are it won’t be long now.