Apple seeks to trademark “iWatch”

Latest reports from Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey and Colombia indicate the Apple has been applying for the "iWatch" trademark.

According to 9to5mac.com, which sourced the reports,  the company responsible for the iPad trademark in Mexico was involved in the latest filing in the country.

In line with the trend of earlier filings for Japan and Russia, details of the new trademark applications were fairly vague, covering computing devices, computer peripherals, and watches. It might also likely be a fair description of the functional capabilities of the new device.

In Japan Apple was seeking trade mark protection for the name, which is listed in a category for products such as a handheld computer or watch, according to a 3 June filing with the Japan Patent Office  made public last week.

Meanwhile Apple's shares are down 40 per cent from a record high in September amid concern that there was no sign yet of a new breakthrough product to help make up for stiffer iPhone competition. Bloomberg cited two people familiar with the company as having said in February that the company had a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch-like device that may perform some of the tasks now handled by the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung, the world's biggest maker of smartphones revealed in March that was developing a wristwatch. Sony Corp has been selling its SmartWatch, which wirelessly connected to phones using Google Inc's Android operating system for over a year. Users can also take calls and reply to e-mails or texts, with the device.

Apple was up 3.2 per cent to $409.22 at the close in New York yesterday, in its biggest increase since February. The Cupertino, California-based company's shares have fallen 23 per cent this year, as against a 13 per cent gain for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.