The battle of slogans is over, Switch watchmaker swatch has defended its right to use ‘Tick different’ slogan. As NDTV gadgets understood, Apple insisted that the Swiss idea of slogan looks too similar to their own one, ‘Think different’. The Swiss court has backed Swatch, indeed.
The tech giant Apple has lost the legal battle regarding slogans. The judicial system of St-Gallen hasn’t seen the similarity between the slogans of two companies. In Federal Administrative Court’s terms, ‘Tick different’ and ‘Think different’ sounds and looks really different. This dispute was just the latest in a series of legal confrontations between the two companies.
Apple originally filed an objection with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, but that organisation turned down the complaint. In the next round of legal battle, Apple had alleged the Swiss’ ‘Tick different’ slogan was too similar to the American’s ‘Think different’ slogan of the 1990s.
Apple insisted in the court that more than half of all Swiss citizens recognize the slogan of Apple from its famous 90s commercial, however, the Swiss court verdicts that it is not that argument is sufficient evidence that this was the case and found in Swatch’s favour.
Historically, Swatch has trademarked the term ‘iSwatch’ before Apple was able to register the term ‘iWatch, according to the papers from 2007 Swatch’s archive. Moreover, the Swiss watchmaker also trademarked the slogan ‘One more thing’, which later was made famous by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
It is not the first legal Apple’s misunderstanding in Switzerland. In 2012, Apple 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.
