Being involved in legal battles is not new anymore to Apple. Besides its case with Epic Games, the tech giant was also fighting its bid over Swatch on the "One more thing" trademark made popular by the late Steve Jobs.
However, the latest legal bid cost Apple a lot after the United Kingdom court ruled out that it cannot block the Swiss watchmaker from using the famous phrase.
Apple Fails to Defend its Stance on 'One More Thing' Trial
In a report by The Telegraph, Apple's bid to reject Swatch from using the "One More Thing" trademark was overturned by the court. For the Cupertino tech company, Swatch had used the famous slogan in "bad faith."
Moreover, the phrase has already stayed with Apple for over 20 years.
Steve Jobs was the one who made the trademark a memorable phrase. He usually utilized it when presenting new Apple products in front of the audience. In November 2020, when the company said it would release the Apple silicon Macs, the slogan was used for the virtual event.
Despite recognizing that Swatch's action could be a way to annoy Apple, judge Iain Purvis from the UK has decided to support the claims of Swatch. This meant that Apple's motive to block the watchmaker from using it did not succeed.
Furthermore, the judge added that the phrase was also used in a 1970's show involving Columbo, who had become popular among his fans with his trademark "one more thing" when he was catching criminals.
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Apple vs Swatch Feud in the Past Years
According to Macrumors, the legal bid between Apple and Swatch was not the first one.
Over the past years, the two companies had formed what seems like bad blood between them. When Apple proposed an action to block the watchmaker from using the phrase in Australia, people knew it was only the beginning of the battle.
Also, Apple had submitted a complaint about the "Tick Different" phrase, another slogan that was used by Swatch during its marketing campaign. Again, the tech giant insisted that the watchmaker made use of Apple's reference for its interest and advantage.
However, the Swiss company countered Apple that the use of a slogan was only coincidental. Swatch continued that what it used during its campaign in the 1980s was the trademark "Always Different, Always New."
The court backed up Swatch two years later, stating that the trademark "Think Different" seemed not that popular in Switzerland for protection. This meant that Apple has also not submitted sufficient documents to support its claims for the case.
Previously, there were several rumors that Apple and Swatch would collaborate to create a smartwatch. At the time, the watchmaker company had already proposed an "iSwatch" trademark when it learned that Apple had also planned to invade the watch market, as other rumors said. This prompted the Swiss firm to block Apple from using "iWatch" as its trademark in the UK.
This article is owned by Tech Times.
Written by Joen Coronel
