Samsung got into trouble recently when the Swatch group sued the company over downloadable watch faces in the Galaxy Store. Swatch alleged that some of the watch faces infringed on its IP (Intellectual Property) rights and sought more than $100 million in damages. Watch faces ripping off iconic brands and designs is not a new problem, but the lawsuit put Samsung on notice.
To tackle such IP infringements more effectively, Samsung has now tweaked its watch face registration policy and sent emails to developers notifying them of the changes. Earlier, the Korean company was very lenient and allowed developers to publish watch faces without any stringent checks and balances pertaining to IP rights. It has now changed the watch face registration policy from “open to closed seller” to fight IP infringements proactively.
New Galaxy Store Watch Face Service Terms
As per the new policy, only sellers who consent to the Galaxy Store Watch Face Service Terms are allowed to register a watch face. Sellers can consent to these terms after uploading the watch face binary file to the seller office. If the name of the watch face, tag, description, images, and other components infringes on others’ IP rights, then Samsung will suspend all the apps of the concerned developer and may terminate his/her account without prior notice.
It appears Samsung is suspending even existing watch faces from developers who don’t consent to the new terms. This is bound to have an impact on the number and quality of watch faces available in the Galaxy Store. On the bright side, developers can no longer copy popular brands and designs recklessly. Hopefully, this will encourage them to come up with new and original designs and make Galaxy Store a better place for all.
