In the US, Samsung prevailed in a trademark trial by persuading the jury that the Galaxy S10 phones don’t infringe upon the trademark rights of a talent-management company using the “S10” moniker.
Samsung’s advertising, according to S10 Entertainment & Media, would lead consumers to believe the brands were connected. The jury concluded that the agency had failed to establish that Samsung’s smartphones would probably lead to consumer misunderstanding.
Samsung launched the Galaxy S-series of smartphones in 2010, and the S10 line of smartphones in 2019.
Samsung assured the court that its usage of “S10” would not lead to confusion and that, based on its past Galaxy S “family,” it had primacy to the S10 name.
A federal jury in Los Angeles was persuaded by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Friday that its Galaxy S10 smartphones do not infringe upon the trademark rights of a talent-management company that also uses the “S10” brand.
The pop artists Anitta and Normani are managed by S10 Entertainment, which claims to have started utilising the S10 moniker in 2017. Samsung launched the Galaxy S-series of smartphones in 2010, and the S10 line of smartphones in 2019.
Samsung’s adoption of a similar font and colour scheme as the talent agency for its S10 logo and its promotional alliances with musicians, according to S10, would lead consumers to believe the companies were associated by Samsung’s advertising.
According to the lawsuit, S10 received communications from persons attempting to purchase Samsung phones on social media. Additionally, it was stated that Anitta had been approached by Samsung about perhaps endorsing the tech juggernaut, and that Samsung was aware of the business before adopting the branding.
The lawsuit claimed that there was “severely decreased value and goodwill of S10 Entertainment’s Instagram and social media footprint” as a result of the association between Samsung’s S10 phone line and S10 Entertainment’s S10 mark.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the US Patent and Trademark Office hosted the trial. Samsung contended that S10 Healthcare’s use of the word “S10” would cause confusion among consumers because it would imply a relationship between the medical devices and Samsung’s well-known Galaxy S10 brand of smartphones.
In order to safeguard its brand and avoid any potential consumer confusion, Samsung’s win in this matter is crucial for the business. The decision also emphasises how crucial trademark protection is in today’s fiercely competitive economic world, when businesses are continually looking for ways to set themselves apart from rivals.
Overall, Samsung’s success in the trademark case is a move that is good for the business and reinforces its position as a dominant force in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.
Samsung argued before the court that the use of “S10” would not lead to confusion, that the Galaxy S “family” of marks it had previously used gave it priority over S10, and that S10 had delayed too long to file the action.
Anuska Guha