Chip supplier to Amazon and Apple faces UK identity crisis

SKYWORKS Solutions, a chip supplier to Amazon.com and Apple, is struggling to secure a UK trademark for its business after a court challenge by broadcasting giant Sky.

A London judge on Wednesday (Jan 11) dismissed Skyworks’ appeal to overturn the UK Intellectual Property Office’s decision that had rejected the chipmaker’s request for three trademarks. A lawyer for Sky had argued that the motifs would give Skyworks an unfair advantage and would harm the broadcaster through misrepresentation.

“How could the word Skyworks not be similar to Sky. How could there not be conflict in this area?” Geoffrey Hobbs, Sky’s lawyer, said in court.

California-based Skyworks, which supplies components and services to some of biggest technology companies including Alphabet and Samsung Electronics, applied for UK trademarks in 2019 for computer hardware, semiconductor devices and telecommunications equipment.

It has partnered with the likes of Vodafone Group and BT Group to help provide wireless technologies.

Skyworks countered in court filings that the Intellectual Property Office got the decision wrong because consumers could easily differentiate between the two companies.

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The judge’s “own personal experience clouded his decision rather than considering the evidence properly”, Jamie Muir Wood, the company’s lawyer, said in the High Court court Wednesday. BLOOMBERG