Rupert Murdoch Claims To Own the 'Sky' In 'Skype'

Crudely_Indecent writes "Not content to own just news stories, Rupert Murdoch is now going after individual words! His BSkyB is fighting a legal battle with Skype, claiming that it owns the 'Sky' in 'Skype.' From the article: 'A spokesman for Sky confirmed that the company has been involved in a "five-year dispute with Skype" over trademark applications filed by the telecomms company. These are, the spokesman added: "including, but not limited to, television-related goods and services."'"

Comments

He's crazy right?

[Tragek]

I thought trademarks were related to the possibility of accidental confusion. If Murdoch thinks the average person will confuse BSkyB and Skype, he must have the most horrendous opinion of the average person!

Re:He's crazy right?

[teh kurisu]

he must have the most horrendous opinion of the average person!

The man behind The Sun and Fox News has a horrendous opinion of the average person?

In other news, grass is green, *** is blue.

Re:He's crazy right?

[randomsearch]

> I thought trademarks were related to the possibility of accidental confusion. If Murdoch thinks the average person will confuse BSkyB and Skype, he must have the most horrendous opinion of the average person!

You have clearly never watched his TV output.

Re:He's crazy right?

[MBGMorden]

It's related to target industries. Windows is a trademark but that only applies to the computing industry. Microsoft could sue Novell if they came up with an OS called "Novell Windows", but they'd have a much harder time suing a glass cleaner named "Windows".

hey

[Ryanrule]

Whens he gonna die?

Re:hey

[oldspewey]

Sad fact: whoever comes along to replace him will be worse.

It's called a downward trajectory.

Who cares what Murdoch thinks?

[XPeter]

He employs Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, the entire Fox and Friends team; and blames the internet for the fail of Newscorp. Obviously he's an moron.

Re:Who cares what Murdoch thinks?

[locallyunscene]

He employs Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, the entire Fox and Friends team; and blames the internet for the fail of Newscorp. Obviously he's an moron.

I don't care what he thinks(which is not much beyond making money). I do care what the hell he does as a non-trivial percentage of America follows his "news".

Re:Who cares what Murdoch thinks?

[dkleinsc]

Obviously he's an moron.

The key thing to understand about him is that Rupert Murdoch and his businesses don't support conservative causes because they believe in conservatism, they support conservative causes because they improve Rupert Murdoch's profit margins. For instance, he doesn't give a damn about gay marriage, but is happy to stir up controversy over gay marriage so that Americans will vote in politicians who will cut taxes on Murdoch and Newscorp.

The expansion of IP/Trademarks

[Manip]

Isn't it interesting how the scope of Trademarks and IP law keep expanding. The original concept of a trademark was to make it difficult for the competition to pass their products off as your products, it had this concept of a "reasonable person" being confused between mark A and mark B. I think when we have companies protecting dictionary words and words containing other words that they happen to have trademarked it has gone far further than the original concept.

I wonder how long until someone protects the letter 'a' and then requires a cash payment each time you use that letter in your trademark? I know that sounds like an insane concept but if you asked people about what is happening today with IP and trademarks they would have told you that was insane too!

Re:Hah! SK Hand Tools owns the SK in Sky!

[elwinc]

Sorry, Rupert! The good folks at SK Hand tools http://www.skhandtool.com/ have had a trademark in SK since 1921. I think you owe them 2/5 of all the revenues BSkyB have taken in since 1989.

Rupert Murdoch is the Larry Ellison of Media

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

A powerful, mean and hateful man - who's wealth and power have brought no comfort to his cramped and ugly little self. The paucity of his humanity is demonstrated with every pathetic grab he makes.

Tell that to Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

try calling something leopard or snow leopard or tiger.

though they got to use Apple even though the Beatles had it first

You mean in the mainstream media owned by Murdoch

[SmallFurryCreature]

Gosh, I wonder why Fox News owned by Ruport Murdoch isn't tearing Mr Ruport Murdoch a new one over this.

And if you wonder why the BBC isn't reporting? Same deal. Us knows us.

Don't expect unbiased reporting on the news, by the news.

Depening on the mainstream news for news about mainstream news companies is like allowing politicians to vote on their own salaries. Board members to vote on board of director salaries. VVD members (dutch right wing party) to examine VVD members who mismanged a bank and werent overseen by the regulator who is a member of the VVD.

Politics, maybe if we shot everyone who watches Idols, we would have a bit more scrutiny.