Downloadable Samsung Smartwatch Faces Violate Swatch Trademarks, Alleges Complaint
Samsung offers its smartwatch owners downloadable watch faces that are “virtually identical” to those of the Swatch Group for the “one purpose” of trading off Swatch products’ “fame, reputation, and goodwill” that were “built painstakingly over decades.” So alleged a…
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trademark infringement complaint (in Pacer) Swatch filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. “Consumers and the general public are deceived into believing” that the Samsung smartwatches are actually Swatch products, it said. Samsung has offered more than 30 watch faces for download since December 2016, all in violation of Swatch trademarks, it said. “Consumers would reasonably infer and believe” that Samsung took “care to ensure that the watch faces that they distribute via the Samsung Galaxy Apps Store do not infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties,” it said. Consumers also would “conclude that Samsung had obtained all necessary licenses or consents” from Swatch to use the watch faces, it said. Swatch “in fact” gave Samsung “no such license or consent,” it said. Samsung didn’t comment Monday.