Samsung Will Pay Swatch Nearly $12 Million Over Digital Copies of Watches in Its App Store

A London High Court has ordered tech giant Samsung Electronics to pay watchmaker Swatch Group $11.6 million,

according to Bloomberg and the Financial Times. The case concerns damages incurred by the Swiss company due to the Galaxy App Store featuring smartwatch watch faces that imitated the designs of luxury brands such as Breguet, Longines, and Omega. All of these brands are owned by Swatch.

The court ruled that, although the designs themselves were created by third-party developers, Samsung failed to prevent them from being listed in its store. Furthermore, it was found to be partially liable because it promoted its "smartwatches" in part by highlighting their attractive watch faces, according to the FT.

The Swiss manufacturer demanded approximately $170 million from the South Korean company for the use of its brands. Swatch told the court that digital watch faces that replicated the appearance of premium-class watches had been downloaded about 160,000 times in the UK and the EU, and called this a large-scale misappropriation of “valuable and carefully protected” trademarks. During the proceedings, Samsung argued that the plaintiff had suffered no damages and that the amount of compensation should not exceed a symbolic sum of $300.

“The use of Swatch Group brands on Samsung’s ‘digital supermarket shelves,’ where they can be downloaded for free or for a small fee, causes them serious harm, in my view,” Judge Marcus Smith stated in a ruling cited by Bloomberg. “The low price devalues the brands that the Swatch Group seeks to develop and promote.”

The South Korean company said it would consider all possible measures, including filing an appeal.

A separate lawsuit against Samsung, filed by the same Swatch Group-owned brands, is pending in a U.S. court.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor