Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Samsung considers appealing UK ruling over Swatch watch face suit
Swatch Group's OMEGA X Swatch MoonSwatch / Courtesy of Swatch Group
By Nam Hyun-woo
Samsung Electronics said Thursday it is considering “all possible countermeasures, including an appeal” to a U.K. High Court’s decision to pay Swatch Group $11.6 million in damages for hosting smartwatch watch face designs that replicated the Swatch brands on its Galaxy 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.
The High Court in London ruled Wednesday (local time) that Samsung should pay damages to the Swiss watchmaker as watch face apps developed by third parties have copied watch face designs of Swatch brands such as Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Longines and Tissot.
The ruling was for far less than the $170 million (235.7 billion won) in damages that Swatch Group initially sought, but far higher than Samsung’s claim that it gained only $300 by selling the watch face apps and that Swatch did not suffer any damage.
According to local media reports, the court ruled that the majority of the damages were specifically for display infringement that harmed Swatch’s interests by displaying the brand names, regardless of whether consumers actually downloaded the apps.
The ruling was a damages inquiry to determine how much Samsung must pay. The High Court already ruled in May 2022 that Samsung was liable for trademark infringement, and the Court of Appeal dismissed Samsung's appeal in December 2023.
“The use of the Swatch Group brands on Samsung’s supermarket shelves (to use the physical analogy), downloadable for nothing or for little money, is to my mind very damaging to the Swatch Group’s property interests,” the judge ruled, according to the Financial Times. “The low price is demeaning of the brands the Swatch Group seek to promulgate.”
Swatch Group said in a statement that Samsung "repeatedly tried to play down the scale and significance of the infringement by belittling compensation for Swatch Group's well-known brands."