Apple says Swatch’s ‘Tick Different’ slogan is a copy – court thinks different

Swatch has triumphed in a legal battle with Apple over the use of its “Tick Different” slogan, which it used to promote its NFC-enabled watches.
In April 2017, Apple brought a lawsuit against Swatch for use of the slogan, arguing it infringed its ‘Think Different’ ads, which ran from 1997 until 2002.
Read this: Everything we know about Swatch’s smartwatchBut Reuters reports that Apple’s attempts were unsuccessful. The court ruled in favor of Swatch, which argued that Apple’s slogan was not known well enough in Switzerland to be owed protection.
The court said that Apple had not provided sufficient documents to make the case that the slogan was well-known enough in Switzerland. Apple would have had to prove that at least 50% of customers associated “Think Different” with the company.
Swatch CEO Nick Hayek also asserted that the “Tick Different” slogan was based on one from the 1980s: “Always different, always new”.
That said, this isn’t the only time Swatch has ostensibly copied Cupertino. In 2015 it won the trademark for the slogan “One more thing” – a well-known phrase often said by Steve Jobs during product launches.
So who knows – maybe Swatch is just trolling Apple with all of this. If it is, it’s doing a damn good job of it. The Swiss watchmaker is expected to soon reveal its very own line of smartwatches to go up against Apple, which will run on a platform it’s currently dubbing Swiss OS.
As for the time being, this ruling ends what has been a long legal case between the two companies – though certainly not the longest Apple has been involved in.