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By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd satisfied a Los Angeles federal jury on Friday that its Galaxy S10 telephones don’t violate the trademark rights of a talent-management company that additionally makes use of the “S10” title.
The jury discovered that S10 Leisure & Media LLC had not proven that Samsung’s common smartphones had been more likely to trigger shopper confusion and drown out its model within the market, based on a courtroom doc revealed Monday.
Representatives for Samsung and S10 didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Monday.
S10 Leisure, which manages the pop singers Anitta and Normani, stated it started utilizing the S10 title in 2017. Samsung started promoting its Galaxy S-series smartphones in 2010 and began providing S10 telephones in 2019.
S10 argued Samsung’s promoting would confuse clients into pondering the manufacturers had been affiliated, citing Samsung’s use of an analogous font and colour scheme because the expertise company for its S10 brand and its promotional partnerships with musicians.
The lawsuit stated S10 had acquired social-media messages from folks making an attempt to purchase Samsung’s telephones. It additionally stated Samsung was conscious of the corporate earlier than adopting the branding, and that Samsung and S10 had mentioned a possible deal for Anitta to endorse the tech large.
“On account of confusion between Samsung’s S10 cellphone line and S10 Leisure’s S10 mark, the worth and goodwill of S10 Leisure’s Instagram and social media footprint has been severely diminished,” the lawsuit stated.
Samsung informed the courtroom that its use of “S10” wouldn’t trigger confusion, that it had precedence to the S10 title based mostly on its earlier Galaxy S “household” of marks, and that S10 waited too lengthy to carry the lawsuit.
The case is S10 Leisure & Media LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, No. 2:21-cv-02443.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)