For the past six years, Swatch has been using the phrases “One more thing” and “Tick different” in its marketing, a strategy that led Apple to take legal action against the Swiss watchmaker.
But the legal action now appears to have stalled. British authorities have given Swatch the right to use the phrase “One more thing” in its marketing, 9to5Mac reports.
The phrases were contentious because they are associated with Apple’s own marketing.
“One more thing”, for instance, was an expression that the late Apple founder Steve Jobs used when saving the blockbuster reveal for the end of a keynote presentation; Tim Cook has also used the phrase occasionally, while emphasising that “We have great respect for these words.” (Here’s every “One more thing” Apple has ever announced.)
Swatch, however, argued that it was using “One more thing” as a reference to the TV detective Columbo, who used it just before he revealed the culprit. It has nothing to do with Apple, the watchmaker claims.
Previously, Swatch had been given the right to use “Tick different” as a slogan, on the grounds that Apple’s acclaimed advertising campaign “Think different”, which ran between 1997 and 2002, was not well known.
In total, Swatch has applied for trademark protection for the two phrases in 44 countries around the world.
This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation by David Price.
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