Aug. 27 at 1:59 AM
Samsung Electronics was ordered by a London High Court judge to pay
$11.6 million to Swatch Group after being found liable for illegally hosting smartwatch displays that copied luxury watch brands, including Breguet, Longines and Omega.
Swatch had sought around
$170 million in damages, while Samsung argued that the appropriate amount should be substantially lower. The ruling follows an earlier decision that Samsung infringed Swatch’s trademarks by allowing watch-face designs resembling the Swiss group’s brands to be offered through its smartwatch app store between 2015 and 2019.
Judge Marcus Smith said the availability of the copied designs for little or no cost was particularly harmful because it undermined the exclusivity and value of Swatch’s brands. He noted that Swatch had spent decades carefully developing and promoting its trademarks, while Samsung had treated them as having little commercial significance.
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