Swatch trademarks Steve Jobs' "One more thing" line

Steve Jobs used to make a last second product announcement during Apple media events by uttering three words that became associated with him. "One more thing," Jobs would say, in a manner that immediately recalled Peter Falk's portrayal of television detective Columbo. Last week, it was discovered that watchmaker Swatch had trademarked the line in May, one month after the introduction of the Apple Watch.

One of the reasons that Apple's timepiece isn't called the iWatch has to do with a threat made by Swatch, which owns the iSwatch trademark. Swatch said that consumers could easily confuse the iWatch and iSwatch names, and promised to take legal action against Apple if necessary.

The Swiss based watchmaker isn't terribly thrilled with Apple's entry into the watch business even though both companies don't really compete with each other at this moment. Yes, Swatch introduced its first smartwatch this year, but the Swatch Touch Zero One is designed for Beach Volleyball players. That is an incredibly narrow niche category for a smartwatch, and not much of a threat to Apple.

Today, Swatch announced that a sequel to the Touch Zero One, the Touch Zero Two, will be launched at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The watchmaker will also offer new smartwatches later this year with support for NFC. This could allow the device to be used to make mobile payments and might be perceived as more of a challenge to the Apple Watch.




source: Reuters, wirtschaft.de,PatentlyApple, EverySteveJobsVideo via BGR