Samsung names its smart watch ‘Gear’

Amid expectation on the rise for Samsung Electronics’ smart watch, the world’s largest electronics firm filed a patent on its smart watch last week in Korea and the United States, The Korea Herald has confirmed.

The world’s largest electronics firm applied for the patent on the wearable gadget it calls “Samsung Gear” on June 21 at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office on June 27.

It is said the name for the watch will be the official one as it is rare for the name of a product to change from that in the patent registration.

In Korea the registration process usually takes four to six months, sometimes up to eight moths.

When asked why there was difference in timing for the applications, a Samsung official declined to comment citing concerns over the leak of information to other competitors.

According to summarized product descriptions in the patent applications with the serial numbers “40-2013-0041142” and “85971385” in Korea and the U.S., respectively, the smart watch will likely feature functions such as a digital camera, health device to record health conditions, global positioning system device, television receiver, and data communication to personal digital assistants, smartphones and personal computers through websites and other computer and electronic communication networks.

Also appearing in the filing are “sunglasses” and “3-D glasses,” which imply that Samsung will possibly introduce glasses down the road through which users watch video clips instead of on a small screen of the watch, a major disadvantage that has long been pointed out.

It is expected that the Samsung’s new product will be introduced for the first time at IFA 2013 in Berlin, an international consumer electronics and home appliances show scheduled to be held Oct. 7-10.

Samsung’s rival Apple is also said to release its own smart watch reportedly called “iWatch” at the event.

Other competitors in the electronics market have already released similar products such as Sony’s “Smart Watch 2.”

Qualcomm, a U.S.-based semiconductor maker, also filed a patent for a smart watch under the name of TOQ at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)