Recently, Samsung fell into trouble with Swatch, as the company sued them over alleged trademark breach. Swatch claimed that some of the downloadable watch faces, from the Samsung Galaxy Store, infringed on its Intellectual Property. Swatch went on to claim $100 million in punitive damages.
This is not a new problem for Samsung and the Galaxy Store. But the complaints were previously for smaller copyright claims. This $100 million lawsuit has definitely got Samsung to stand up to attention regarding fake watch face developers to hand!
Galaxy Store Watch Face Service Terms
Now, the Samsung Galaxy Store Review Team has sent out an email to developers notifying them of changes to its watch face registration policy. In an effort to reduce IP issues, policy change has gone from “open to closed”. The Korean tech giant has definitely taken the IP Infringement fight to sellers.
Samsung has issued a new set of Galaxy Store Watch Face Service Terms. If you, as a watch face developer, want to register a new watch face you will need to consent your agreement to them. Only then are you allowed to upload the new watch face file! Existing watch face developers are also required to consent to the new Terms.
A new vetting procedure is now in place. Looking at the metadata of the Smartwatch app name of the watch face, tag, description, images, etc infringes on others’ IP rights, then action may be taken. Samsung will suspend all the apps of the concerned developer and may terminate his/her account without prior notice. Some will see this as a savage approach, but it’s probably the best way to tackle this issue head-on.
All this shows you how lapse Samsung’s previous watch face vetting procedures were against IP Infringement and fake watch face developers. This should now severely reduce the number of Intellectual property issues Samsung has, but time will tell how effective it is.
