Apple lost in a British court a lawsuit against the Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group for the right to the phrase "One more thing" that became famous thanks to Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs used this famous cue for announcing a surprise new product during many of Apple's events. The London High Court saw no malice in Swatch's decision to patent the "One more thing" phrase. Deputy Judge Iain Purvis admitted in his ruling that Swatch might have sought to "annoy" Apple, but its actions cannot be considered unfair.
This conflict started in 2014 when Apple failed to register the iWatch trademark because Swatch already had a registered product under the similar name, iSwatch. A year later, after Apple's smartwatch entered the market with the name Apple Watch, Swatch applied for registration of the international trademark One more thing.
The Internet Protocol
Apple called Swatch's actions, which registered the phrase, unfair, and tried to challenge the patent office's decision, but the company failed. According to Apple representatives, this phrase has been associated with Apple for 20 years.
Apple believes that this phrase's registration could be Swatch's attempt to "annoy" Apple, and the judge partly agreed with this argument, but still stated that Swatch's actions were not malicious.
At the same time, the judge admitted that the famous phrase might not come from Jobs at all but originated with the fictional TV detective Columbo.
