Swatch has Warned Apple Against the Use of the iWatch Brand

Swatch Group is taking measures not to let Apple name their “smart” watch the iWatch, the Bloomberg agency said.

Swatch, the largest watch manufacturer, already produces a model branded the iSwatch and believes that the future Apple’s product’s name will be confusingly similar. At the same time there is no discussion of the lawsuit, the Swiss company is trying to prevent the registration of the new brand of the American corporation.

Nick Hayek, the CEO of the Swatch, announced that the company will protect their trademark in all countries where it is registered. At the moment these are several dozen states. However, Hayek did not specify when such protective measures have started and what results were achieved. He added that it was a standard procedure to protect their brand.

The iWatch ‘smart’ watch is one of the most anticipated Apple products, however, the company has not officially announced its launching. According to nonofficial information, this gadget will appear in the summer and will be a medium-width wrist bracelet with a touch screen.

At the moment according to the national patent office, Apple has initiated iWatch trademark registration in Japan. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization website, more than 50 companies in the world use the iWatch brand in different spheres. The Watson.ch resource reported on April 1 that the luck of the iWatch brand is volatile in different countries: in Monaco it was accepted for the registration, and in Iceland it was rejected because considered too similar to iSwatch.

Swatch Group also produces Omega, Breguet, Tissot and Longines watches other than the homonymous brand. Despite the fact that its market capitalization is about 18 times lower than the one of Apple (29 against 510 billion dollars), Hayek insists that two brands iSwatch and iWatch cannot belong to the same watches market.

Apple has to sue for their brands regularly. For example, in 2007, Cisco tried to ban Apple from using the iPhone name. The company settled the dispute on the terms that were not disclosed. In 2012, Apple was unable to register the title of a similar trademark in Brazil, because a local manufacturer produced a simple phone called the Iphone. And again, the parties arrived at the agreement on the privy conditions. In the same year the Proview Technology company tried to ban the sales of the iPad in Shanghai, it had the rights to the I-PAD trademark, but it failed.

Apple, in turn, in 2012, was not able to prohibit the use of the iFone trademark in Mexico. However, it was lucky at winning in the patent disputes with the Samsung: on Saturday, April 3, it was reported that the court ordered the Korean company to pay approximately $120 million for the Apple’s patent infringement.

Source: lenta.ru

Photo collage: by Lenta.ru features the possible design of the iWatch and iSwatch