Completely false equivalence. If MS had just dropped the name 'windows' or 'xbox' then you might have a point. But the name of the metro interface has nowhere near the significance of apple's flagship product, which also allowed it to tie in perfectly with their then-flagship product(/s) without sounding ridiculous. The name iPhone was central to Apple's entire core branding. Metro? No one but geeks are ever even going to hear the phrase probably.
And it's lawyers telling the marketing guys what not to do, they are not making proactive naming decisions.
I completely disagree. The "revolutionary" interface in Windows Phone 7 is Metro -- that's how it's described in the media and that's how it's marketed. I just had a conversation with a co-worker about Windows 8 and of course we discussed "Metro". What did all the media call Outlook.com not two days ago? The Metro-fication of Outlook. There's a lot of momentum behind that name that's now suddenly going to go nowhere.
From the company who called their new tablet "Surface for Windows 8 RT", Metro was at least a step in the right direction.
And it's lawyers telling the marketing guys what not to do, they are not making proactive naming decisions.