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Judge backs Swatch over Bloomberg lawsuit

A New York court has rejected Bloomberg's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Swatch, which accuses the news agency of publishing information which was not destined for the public, it said on
Wednesday.

Judge backs Swatch over Bloomberg lawsuit
Blake Patterson

“Because the authorized audio recording is entitled to copyright protection, and because the copyright claim is properly registered, I deny the motion in full,” judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote in his decision.  

Swatch, the world’s number one watchmaker, accuses Bloomberg of divulging financial information discussed during a telephone conference on February 8, which it said was only for analysts and which court documents show it subsequently copyrighted.  

“This meeting was reserved for financial analysts, and we had specifically forbidden them from recording the conversation,” Swatch spokeswoman Beatrice Howald told AFP.  

“The Bloomberg journalists not only recorded this telephone conference, but they also posted it on their website,” she said.  

In a statement, Bloomberg said that a company should disclose its financial information to the public. 

“We believe that if a public company discloses financial performance information to a select group of analysts, that company has a responsibility to be transparent and provide that information to everyone,” it said.  

“The investing public has a right to know and we remain confident that when all the facts come out the court will agree that we acted fairly in doing so,” Bloomberg added.  

The two parties will go to court on September 16, the judge added.

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LAW

Swiss watchmaker Swatch wins latest trademark battle with Apple

A top Swiss court on Thursday handed the watchmaker Swatch victory in a trademark dispute with US technology giant Apple – the latest in a series of legal disputes between the two firms.

Swiss watchmaker Swatch wins latest trademark battle with Apple
Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek with the Zero One wristwatch in 2014. File photo: AFP

In the current case, Apple had alleged the Swiss company’s ‘Tick different’ slogan was too similar to the US company’s ‘Think different’ slogan of the 1990s.

Apple originally filed an objection with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, but that organisation turned down the complaint.

Read also: How luxury watchmakers are gearing up for Brexit

The US company then took the case to the St-Gallen based Federal Administrative Court.

To have a chance of winning its case against Swatch, Apple had to prove that the famous slogan – the related TV commercial won an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial in 1998 – had more than 50 percent recognition in Switzerland.

However, the Federal Administrative Court ruled Apple had not provided sufficient evidence that this was the case and found in Swatch’s favour.

The evidence for awareness of the slogan in Switzerland consisted of just several articles on Apple in Swiss broadsheet NZZ.

This dispute was just the latest in a series of legal confrontations between the two companies.

In 2007, Swatch, which is headed up by charismatic businessman Nick Hayek, trademarked the term ‘iSwatch’ before Apple was able to register the term ‘iWatch. 

The Swiss watchmaker also trademarked the expression ‘One more thing’, which was made famous by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Apple has had other legal problems in Switzerland. In 2012, it reportedly paid 20 million Swiss francs (€17.8 million) to Swiss Federal Railways to avoid going to court over its use of the design of the Swiss railway clock in its i06 operating system.

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