Microsoft confirms it will change SkyDrive name after trademark suit

Microsoft has done a lot of work to make SkyDrive one of the most competitive cloud storage services on the market. But soon it will be dropping the name SkyDrive.

After a U.K. court ruled that the SkyDrive name infringed on a trademark owned by British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), Microsoft said today that it will get rid of the name and pick a new one.

“We’re glad to have resolution of this naming dispute, and will continue to deliver the great service our hundreds of millions of customers expect, providing the best way to always have your files with you,” Microsoft said in a statement via email.

BSkyB said it will give Microsoft “a reasonable period of time” to transition the brand to another name. Perhaps it will keep the Drive name and change the “Sky” part to something else associated with Microsoft such as Windows, Xbox, Outlook, or Office.

Editor’s note: Our upcoming CloudBeat conference, Sept. 9-10 in San Francisco, will be tackling revolutionary cases of enterprise cloud usage. Register today!

This is a small blow to the SkyDrive service, which has added tons of features as of late and deeply embedded itself in the latest version of Windows. The service won’t change, but it will likely be expensive to get the general public onboard with the rebranding.

SkyDrive competes with Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync, and other cloud storage providers. It offers 7GB of free file storage and has apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Windows 7.