A Samsung employee poses with the new Samsung Galaxy S 10 5 G smartphone at a press event in London.
Reuters- Samsung Electronics Co Ltd convinced a Los Angeles federal jury on Friday that its Galaxy S 10 phones do not violate the trademark rights of a talent-management agency that also uses the S 10 name.
According to a court document released Monday, the jury found that S 10 Entertainment Media LLC had not shown that Samsung's popular smartphones were likely to cause consumer confusion and drown out its brand in the marketplace.
Representatives for Samsung and S 10 did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
S 10 Entertainment, which manages the pop singers Anitta and Normani, said it began using the name S 10 in 2017. In 2010 Samsung began selling its Galaxy S-series smartphones and began offering S 10 phones in 2019.
S 10 argued that Samsung's advertising would confuse customers into thinking the brands were affiliated, citing Samsung's use of a similar font and color scheme as the talent agency for its S 10 logo and promotional partnerships with musicians.
The lawsuit said S 10 had received social-media messages from people trying to buy Samsung's phones. It said that Samsung was aware of the company before it adopted the branding, and that Samsung and S 10 discussed a potential deal for Anitta to endorse the tech giant.
The lawsuit said that the value of S 10 Entertainment's Instagram and social media footprint has been severely diminished because of the confusion between Samsung's S 10 phone line and S 10 Entertainment's S 10 mark.
Samsung told the court that it would not cause confusion, that it had priority to the S 10 name based on its earlier Galaxy S family of marks, and that S 10 waited too long to bring the lawsuit.
The case is S 10 Entertainment Media LLC vs. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No.