Just as things were getting good for Microsoft word is coming out that the word “Metro” may be problematic for the company.
The term ‘Metro’ is reportedly being claimed as a trademark for German company Metro AG and it will no longer be used by Microsoft, effective immediately. Ars Technica is reporting that Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs team sent out a memo banning the word "Metro” from all public usage which is a sign that something is awry.
Microsoft did respond to Ars Technica playing off the change as a planned strategy:
“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.”
Personally speaking we find all this to be unfortunate as we understood the term to be “Metro UI” in reference to the design based off of public transportation systems including airports and subways. The notion that people would confuse it with the company Metro AG seems a bit of a stretch as the term seems generic enough to not warrant a trademark.
Then again, we’re not lawyers and Microsoft does have plenty of those so we’ll leave those decisions to them.
“Metro UI” did have a ring to it though, something that its reported replacement, “Windows 8-style UI” simply does not.
