A London High Court judge has ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Swatch Group US$11.6 million (S$14.74 million) in damages in a years-long trademark dispute over digital watch faces that mimicked designs from Swatch Group brands including Omega, Breguet and Tissot.
Samsung has been ordered to pay millions of dollars for hosting digital watch faces created by third-party developers, in a ruling that rejected the technology group’s argument that its liability for the infringements amounted to just a few hundred dollars.
The case centred on 26 third-party “watch face” apps sold through Samsung’s Galaxy app store that mimicked designs from Swatch Group brands including Blancpain, Longines, Omega, Tissot and Breguet. The High Court found Samsung liable for trademark infringement in 2022 over the apps, which were available between October 2015 and February 2019, and the company subsequently lost an appeal. A damages inquiry was held this year to determine the sum owed.
The High Court in London on Wednesday awarded the damages after hearing that the apps had been downloaded around 160,000 times across the UK and EU. The majority of the award, US$10 million, was for what Justice Marcus Smith called “store display infringements”, relating to Samsung displaying the watchmaker’s brand names on its app store regardless of whether consumers downloaded the apps.
Smith compared the practice to copycat products being placed on the shelves of a physical supermarket, stating: “The use of the Swatch Group brands on Samsung’s supermarket shelves, downloadable for nothing or for little money, is to my mind very damaging to the Swatch Group’s property interests.”
The sum awarded is well below the US$170 million Swatch Group had sought, though far higher than the roughly US$300 Samsung argued it owed. Samsung was found liable in 2022, and lost a subsequent appeal, in part because it controlled the app review process despite the apps having been developed by third parties.
Samsung said it was “carefully considering” the judgment and would consider “all possible countermeasures, including an appeal.” Swatch Group said Samsung had “repeatedly attempted to downplay the scale and significance of the infringements.” A related case brought against Samsung in the United States remains stayed pending the outcome of the English proceedings.