UK court orders Samsung Electronics to pay 16.1 billion won in damages over Swatch trademark infringement

[Financial News] A UK court has ordered Samsung Electronics to pay $11.6 million, or about 16.1 billion won, to the Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group. The court said Samsung harmed Swatch Group by distributing smartwatch face designs that copied watch faces from brands under the group.
According to foreign media including the Financial Times (FT) on the 26th local time, Mr Justice Marcus Smith of the High Court in London made the ruling in a case in which Swatch Group had sought $170 million, or about 235.7 billion won, from Samsung Electronics.
Swatch Group owns several watch brands, including Breguet, Longines, OMEGA and Tissot. It argued that Samsung Electronics infringed its trademarks by allowing watch face applications that mimicked the appearance and branding of its watches to be sold on the Galaxy Store.
According to a 2022 ruling by the High Court in London, 30 watch face apps infringed 23 Swatch Group trademarks between October 2015 and February 2019, and the apps were downloaded about 160,000 times in the UK and the European Union. Although the apps were made by third-party developers, the court found that Samsung Electronics was too involved in the review and distribution process to be considered a mere platform provider. That finding was upheld on appeal in 2023.
In his ruling on the 26th, Mr Justice Marcus Smith set the specific amount of damages. Samsung Electronics had argued during the lawsuit that Swatch Group had suffered no actual harm and that only $300 had flowed to Samsung, saying the group’s demand was excessive.
However, Smith said, "Using Swatch Group brands on Samsung's supermarket shelves (app store) so they could be downloaded for free or for a low price caused significant harm to Swatch Group's property rights." He added, "A low price damages the brands that Swatch Group wants to promote widely."
In a statement released the same day, Samsung Electronics said, "We are carefully reviewing the High Court's decision and will consider all possible responses, including an appeal."
[email protected] Park Jong-won Reporter