On 8 June, the European Court of First Instance ruled on a
dispute that has been ticking over between two famous companies for
more than five years: the Californian Apple Inc and the Swiss
watchmaker Swatch AG.
Carole Roger examines the implications.
In 1997, Apple launched its emblematic advertising campaign Think
Different (used until 2002) featuring, in black and white,
celebrities such as: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther
King, John Lennon, Muhammad Ali, Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso,
Mahatma Gandhi, and many others (see the video here: Apple
- Think Different - Full Version).
This slogan was the subject of three European Union trademark
applications in class 9 in 1997 (No. 671321), 1998 (No. 845461) and
2005 (No. 4415063). In October 2016, Swatch filed three
applications for revocation, with Swatch exploiting its own
"Tick Different" advertising campaign. The two parties
have since been locked in a dispute over several countries
(Portugal, Czech
