UK High Court orders Samsung to pay Swatch $11.6 million over copied smartwatch watch faces

Samsung Electronics has been ordered by the UK High Court to pay $11.6 million to Swatch Group after allowing smartwatch applications that replicated the Swiss watchmaker’s luxury brands on its devices, Bloomberg reported.The dispute centred on digital watch faces made available through Samsung’s app store between 2015 and 2019. A previous ruling had established that the designs infringed trademarks belonging to 10 Swatch Group brands, including Omega, Longines and Breguet.Swatch Group had initially sought around $170 million in damages, while Samsung argued that any compensation should be limited to roughly $300. Judge Marcus Smith ultimately awarded $11.6 million, taking into account royalties associated with approximately 160,000 downloads of the infringing applications across Europe.Samsung Galaxy S26 FE To Launch Today: How To Watch Live & What To Expect? Court highlights impact on luxury brandsThe judge said the availability of inexpensive or free digital designs could harm the reputation and exclusivity associated with Swatch Group’s brands. He noted that the Swiss company had spent decades building and promoting its trademarks, making their protection commercially significant.Smith also criticised Samsung’s approach to the dispute, saying the technology company appeared to place little value on the trademarks themselves and had sought to minimise the significance of the infringement.Swatch Group welcomed the ruling, accusing Samsung of repeatedly understating the compensation owed for the use of its well-known brands. Samsung considers possible appealSamsung said it was reviewing the High Court’s judgment and would consider all available legal options, including an appeal.The dispute could extend beyond the UK, with Swatch Group confirming that separate proceedings involving the same 10 brands are pending before a US court. The case highlights the growing legal challenges technology companies can face when digital platforms allow third-party applications to reproduce established luxury trademarks.

Samsung argued at trial that the damages weren’t worth more than about $300.

The High Court's trademark ruling, published Wednesday, came after the Swiss watchmaker sought about $170 million from the Korean technology giant for displaying the Swatch brands.

The digital watch faces mimicked designs from brands including Omega, Longines, Tissot, Breguet and Blancpain, with a London judge ruling that their presence on Samsung’s app store damaged Swatch Group’s interests.

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it is considering “all possible countermeasures, including an appeal” to a U.K. High Court’s decision to pay Swatch Group $11.6 million in damages for hosting smartwatch watch face designs that replicated the Swatch brands on its Galaxy app store. “We are carefully considering the High Court's judgment and will consider all possible countermeasures, including an appeal,” Samsung said in a statement. The High Court in London ruled Wednesday (local time) that Samsung should pay damages to the Swiss watchmaker as watch face apps developed by third parties have copied watch face designs of Swatch brands such as Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Longines and Tissot. The ruling was for far less than the $170 million (235.7 billion won) in damages that Swatch Group initially sought, but far higher than Samsung’s claim that it gained only $300 by selling the watch face apps and that Swatch did not suffer any damage. According to local media reports, the court ruled that the majority of the damages were specifically for display infringement that harmed Swatc