Swatch Group is seeking $170 million (~!RM 607 million) in damages from Samsung after the South Korean giant was found guilty of allowing pirated watch faces to be offered on its smartwatches, according to a report by the Financial Times. The lawsuit was filed in 2019 over 26 watch faces for the Galaxy Watch that infringed on the copyrights of Omega, Tissot, and Breguet watch faces under the Swatch Group.
Although Samsung did not produce the 26 watch faces, it was still found guilty of allowing them to be downloaded through the app store. The court found that Samsung should have controlled the review process for apps before publishing them on the store. After Samsung’s appeal was rejected, the court is now in the process of determining the amount of compensation to be paid to Swatch.
The $170 million sought is based on the number of apps downloaded more than 160,000 times in the UK and EU between 2015–2019. The outcome of this case will determine the next lawsuit filed by Swatch Group in the United States. Swatch says it has never licensed its brand to third parties and that using its watch faces on smartwatches would damage the value of premium Swiss watches.
While Swatch is known for offering attractive watches at affordable prices, The Swatch Group owns many of the leading brands including Balmain, Blancpain, Breguet, Certina, Flik Flak, Glashütte Original, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Jaquet Droz, Longines, Mido, Omega, Rado, Swatch, Tissot, and Union Glashütte.
