Smart watches and luxury wrist watches aren't exactly direct competitors, but luxury watchmakers are going after makers of replica smart watch faces accusing them of infringing upon their intellectual property rights.
A new report by TorrentFreak says a number of companies making and selling luxury watches have banded together to call out websites and individuals designing and distributing custom digital faces for smart watches that resemble the physical watch faces of their watches.
TorrentFreak says Richemont, a Switzerland-based company that owns the brands Cartier, IWC and Panerai, is one of the leaders of the movement. Also part of the group that is calling for the takedown of websites featuring their copyrighted watch faces are Armani, Certina, Flik Flak, Fossil, Michael Kors, Mondaine, Swatch and Tissot.
The group has reportedly sent cease-and-desist notices seen by TorrentFreak to several websites that host custom smart watch faces and offer them as free downloads for users, citing copyrights and trademark infringement as the grounds for taking down these "pirated" content. TorrentFreak also cites an anonymous source saying Swatch-owned Omega also contacted a forum demanding that all digital watch faces identical to Omega's copyrighted content be removed from the forum to protect the brand's "registered trademark, copyright and design."
One of the websites targeted by the watchmakers is FaceRepo, where users upload the designs of their digital smart watch faces for others to download. FaceRepo confirms that it has received a takedown notice from Richemont and has complied with no qualms.
"Although some of the replica faces we've received takedowns for are very cool looking and represent significant artistic talent on the part of the designer, we believe that owners of copyrights or trademarks have the right to defend their brand," says FaceRepo. "If a copyright or trademark owner contacts us, we will promptly remove infringing material. To date, all requests for removal of infringing material have been satisfied within a matter of hours."
This doesn't mean, however, that FaceRepo has removed all copyright-infringing content. For instance, a replica digital watch face of Patek Philippe's $2.6 million Grandmaster Chime is still available for download on the website.
The takedown requests by the watchmakers are less likely a demonstration of their fear of smart watch makers than a legal obligation they have to fulfill. If these companies do not go after makers of replica smart watch faces, it will be more difficult for them to run after makers of counterfeit luxury watches.
And in the event that the takedown requests are taken to court, watchmakers have a legal precedent to stand on. Mondaine, one of the companies involved in the cease-and-desist requests, has taken Apple to court and won $21 million in licensing fees after the court found out that Apple used Mondaine's copyrighted watch face design for iOS 6.
