Samsung ordered to pay $11.6 million over copycat Swatch watch faces
A London court held Samsung liable for smartwatch apps that copied Swatch Group watch designs and trademarks.
The logo of Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch is displayed at a department store in Paris on May 18.
REUTERS/YONHAP
A London High Court ordered Samsung Electronics to pay $11.6 million to Swatch Group for distributing copycat designs of the latter's products for its smartwatch devices.
Swiss-based Swatch Group owns watch brands including Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Longines and Tissot. The watchmaker had sought about $170 million in damages. It argued against Samsung for permitting the operations of watch-face apps that copied its designs and trademarks through Samsung's app store.
A British court previously found that Samsung infringed Swatch Group's trademarks by allowing watch-face apps modeled after the appearance of its watches to be sold and distributed through the Samsung app store between 2015 and 2019. The latest ruling from the high court set the damages Samsung owes for the trademark infringement.
The watch-face apps in question were reportedly created by third-party developers rather than Samsung itself. The court, however, found Samsung responsible as it operated the app store through which the apps were displayed to consumers and made available for download.
The apps were downloaded about 160,000 times in the European Union, according to the Financial Times. Of the total damages, $10 million was awarded for the exposure of Swatch Group brands to consumers through the Samsung app store.
“Use of the Swatch Group brands on Samsung’s supermarket shelves, downloadable for nothing or for little money, is to my mind very damaging,” said Judge Marcus Smith.
Samsung argued during the proceedings that Swatch Group had suffered no substantial harm. It also noted that it earned only about $300 from the apps.
However, the court rejected that argument and ruled that damages should account not only for revenue from actual sales but also the use and display of the brands in Samsung's app store.
“We are carefully considering the High Court’s judgment and will consider all possible countermeasures, including an appeal,” Samsung said in a statement following the ruling.
Swatch Group welcomed the decision. The Swiss company additionally noted that Samsung had repeatedly sought to downplay the scale and significance of the infringement.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
