In what can only be described as a disaster for Microsoft, the company has decided to drop the very nice "Metro" name for the design of their new operating system for the oh so catchy "Windows 8-style UI" name. Peter Bright has the details over at Ars technica.

The gist of the story seems to be that Microsoft legal is fearful of infringing on Metro trademarks of a German company, Metro AG. Microsoft is making a huge error. The Windows brand is tarnished already, and many people, myself included, think it should have been dropped and replaced by Metro. Instead, the Windows name will be as prominent as ever on what are essentially ground up OS redesigns.

But what choice did they have, you might ask? I seem to remember a time a little more than 5 years ago when Apple chose to launch the iPhone despite the trademark being owned by Cisco. Steve Jobs realized the importance of branding and his solution to the problem was to launch and then deal with the consequences later.

What good is it to be a company as large and rich as Microsoft if you're not willing to throw around a little of that cash in a behind the scenes deal to license a brand you've already presented to the public? Someone in Redmond needs to wake up and fight for their company's future.

Hat tip to Daring Fireball.