The Swatch Group secured a legal victory against Samsung Electronics in a London court, securing $11.6 million in damages for trademark infringement related to digital watch faces used on Samsung smartwatches.
A London High Court ruling published on August 26 determined that Samsung violated Swatch’s intellectual property rights by offering 10 digital watch face designs through its Galaxy App Store between October 2015 and February 2019. The court found Samsung liable for infringement, though the awarded amount fell short of the $170 million Swatch had initially claimed.
Swatch Group had sought compensation for alleged violations across 26 watch faces, but the court limited damages to 10 specific cases. The ruling follows a 2022 judgment that confirmed Samsung’s infringement, with a London appeals court upholding that decision in late 2023. Swatch Group stated in a response that Samsung had repeatedly attempted to minimize the scope and severity of the violations, including efforts to reduce the compensation owed to zero.
Court documents indicated that the infringing watch face apps were downloaded approximately 160,000 times in the UK and EU, generating roughly $1,000 in revenue for Samsung. The case does not include the U.S., where a separate legal proceeding on the same issue remains ongoing.
