Aligned against the watchmaker are retailers and free-flow-of-information types like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who say Omega is using a law designed to control creative works to control the U.S. prices of manufactured products.

FORBES: Costco v. Omega Is About Much More Than Cheap Watches

"Regardless of what the government does with the DNA sample and the limits it places on the sample's use, all the highly personal data in it is in the government's possession, and outside the individual's control, " said Jennifer Lynch, lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

NPR: Court Takes Up Question Of Arrestee DNA Sampling