Swatch is reportedly planning on stopping Apple from using the name “iWatch” for its forthcoming smartwatch. The Swiss watchmaker believes that using the name could confuse buyers with its own “ISwatch” line of watches.
In a statement to German publication Watson, a Swatch representative said,
We assess the likelihood of confusion as given, the marks are confusingly similar. In all countries where the mark is registered, we go against it before.
The report doesn’t provide any details on how the watchmaker plans on fighting the case, but it does add that this isn’t the first time Swatch has tried blocking the iWatch trademark. Last year, Apple had filed for an iWatch trademark in countries like Japan, Mexico and Turkey.
This isn’t a new situation for Apple either as it has had to fight a similar trademark battle for the iPhone nomenclature too. Back in 2007, Cisco accused Apple of infringing a trademark for the use of the name iPhone. It also accused Apple of creating a “front company to try to acquire the rights another way” after it failed to get the rights from Cisco.
