An Athlone-based businessman could be in for a windfall as he owns the trademark for the term 'iWatch'.

Daniele Di Salvo, director of software firm Probendi, registered a Europe-wide trademark for iWatch back in 2008.

That means Apple cannot name their new smartwatch - currently referred to by the company as the Apple Watch - as 'iWatch' because the name has already been patented.

And now Probendi is looking at manufacturing its own smartwatch.

Mr Di Salvo says that iWatch was first developed as an app for his clients.

"The application was named iWatch - because 'I' like a person, 'I' as a subject 'watch' the verb," he said.

"So that's the reason of the name of the application," he added.