Apple Pays $21M for Using Patented Clock Design

photo source : wikipedia, apple.com

Apple, which is very strict with their designs, has paid Swiss railway company SBB $21 million for using clock design. In a report in AFP, SBB has taken offense to the Apple’s icon design that is a trademark owned by SBB.   

An SBB spokesman told that "We're rather proud that a brand as important as Apple is using our design". They were proud that Apple decided to use their clock design, but Apple was not licensed for it. Apple quickly request to have official talk with SBB, and the two company made an agreement of using clock design. 

The design is created by SBB employee Hans Hilfiker in 1944. It is also used in station clocks throughout the railway system, and licensed to Mondaine, a Swiss watch company. You can see this clock images here.  

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