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Microsoft ponders new names for SkyDrive

A UK court ruled in July that "SkyDrive" infringed on British Sky Broadcasting Group's "Sky" trademark, and Microsoft is reportedly near picking a new moniker.

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Microsoft is reportedly trying out potential new names for SkyDrive after losing a legal battle with Sky this past summer, with possible candidates rumored to include NewDrive, BingDrive, and FetchDrive.

Windows blogger Paul Thurrott claims the SkyDrive's new name is NewDrive. LiveSide has reported that the URL www.newdrive.com pointed to SkyDrive, but the link is now dead.

Before you get too excited, Microsoft has previously used "new" as a placeholder or internal code name: Hotmail was internally dubbed Newmail before it was publicly rechristened Outlook.com. Back in July a UK court ruled that the naming of Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage service infringed on British Sky Broadcasting Group's Sky trademark, and that Microsoft should change the name to avoid confusion. As a result of this ruling, Microsoft is changing the name of SkyDrive across the board, and not just in Britain.

Read more of "Microsoft considers new names for SkyDrive after Sky battle" at CNET UK.