As reported earlier, Microsoft is facing a challenge by European retailer Metro AG over Microsoft’s use of the name ‘Metro’ in Windows 8 branding. As such, Microsoft is looking to eliminate the use of the name ‘Metro’. At first it appeared as if Microsoft would limit the eradication of ‘Metro’ from Windows 8 to Microsoft-controlled products, with rumors emerging that all references to ‘Metro’ in Windows 8 are being changed to simply ‘Windows 8’. Now, however, it is clear Microsoft won’t allow third-party Windows 8 apps developers use the name ‘Metro’, either.

Microsoft has issued an update to the Naming your app section of developer guidelines on Windows 8 apps. The update states:

Make sure your app name doesn’t include the word metro. Apps with a name that includes the word metro will fail certification and won’t be listed in the Windows Store.

So essentially any app that has the word ‘Metro’ in it needs to rename itself to something else. To be clear this is only referring to the word ‘Metro’ — the use of the tile interface formally known as Metro UI is still allowed and in fact encouraged by Microsoft.

Ironically, Microsoft hasn’t updated its Windows 8 Developer Center to reflect the new policy for not using ‘Metro’. As ArsTechnica points out, the same page that lists the new Naming your app rules has ‘Metro’ included in the page title (“Dev Center – Metro style apps”) whereas going to the main Dev Center page shows a huge banner (shown in the image above) that says “Develop great Metro style apps for Windows 8″. Of course this whole no-more-Metro policy by Microsoft is fairly new and I’m sure Microsoft will eventually update their pages to reflect that, but does anyone else find it a tad bit funny that while Microsoft is telling third-party developers to not use it, Microsoft itself is still using it? Yeah…

[via ArsTechnica]