Approximately 1.7 billion yen is paid by Apple to steal the design of the Swiss Federal Railway Watch

ByJames Cridland

The design of the clock application released by Apple for iOS 6Swiss Federal Railway (SBB) rail clockAlthough the settlement was settled in October on the issue that SBB claimed the trademark right, the license fee was 20 million Swiss francs (about 1.67 billion yen) according to the local newspaper It is said that it will climb.

Hintergrund: Der Streit mit Apple schwemmt Millionen in die SBB-Kasse - News Wirtschaft: Unternehmen - tagesanzeiger.ch
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtschaft/unternehmen-und-konjunktur/Der-Streit-mit-Apple-schwemmt-Millionen-in-die-SBBKasse/story/29888690


Apple has released several clock applications for iPad and iPhone with iOS 6, one of which is very similar to SBB's clock design. SBB insisted on trademark right because it did not give permission to use the design, and had discussions with Apple.

As a result, Apple agreed to pay the licensing fee to SBB, iPad and iPhone can continue to use this design watch.

The image below, the left is Apple's clock application, the right is the Swiss Federal Railway clock.

Swiss rail company accuses iPhone 5 of copying their iconic clock design | Mail Online


Although it was not clarified as to whether the license fee is somewhat, according to information obtained from multiple sources from the Tages-Anzeiger paper of Switzerland, it is said that it is about 20 million francs (about 1.67 billion yen) Thing. About this, SBB said that he sent a question to no comment, Apple, but he seems to have no reaction.

It was in 1944 that this watch was designed, and the design patent has already expired, but SBB registered as a three-dimensional trademark in 2002. Therefore, even if the patent expired, the condition requiring permission of SBB was maintained for use.

If Apple deleted even the watch app it would not have needed to pay such a huge license fee. However, as the iPad on which this SBB watch has been installed has already been on the market in Switzerland, considerable additional expenses are required to recover it and delete the watch, and also to make a trial of patent infringement against Samsung Apple has decided to pay the licensing fee because Apple decides that Apple can order the deletion of the watch could damage the reputation.

By the way, watchmaker MONDAINE has been licensed since 1986 and sells watches with the same design as the SBB watch. Mr. Andre Bernheim, president of MONDAINE, commented on this case that SBB watches are widely known, and that we are also profitable even for ourselves who actually sell watches. .


BySatoshi Kobayashi