You’re never far from a legal dispute these days, and Microsoft has made sure it is a bit further away. According to a report, Microsoft is currently being subjected to a trademark dispute for naming its Windows 8 User Interface as “Metro”.
With regards to Windows 8 the word Metro is now dead and buried. The company’s Legal and Corporate Affairs team sent out a memo banning the word “Metro”. LCA’s memo reportedly said that Microsoft had been threatened with legal action for infringing on “Metro” trademarks that are held by German retailer Metro AG.
This now means that Microsoft have adopted new terminology for the Windows 8 operating system. The Metro UI now becomes “Windows 8-style UI” when talking about Windows 8 applications, and “New User Interface” when talking about the company’s full product line-up.
Microsoft commented on the speculation stating that:
We have used ‘Metro style’ as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines. As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialog to a broad consumer dialog we will use our commercial names.
