APPLE: SCREW YOU, BRITS, everyone else says Samsung copied us
But we will apologise because the judge said we had to
Apple has complied with a UK court order by admitting on its website that Samsung's Galaxy Tab did not rip off the patented iPad design. High Court Judge Birss had instructed Apple to publish a statement online and in print after ruling that the South Korean electronics giant had not infringed Cupertino's patent.
The statement can be found via a small link labelled "Samsung/Apple UK judgement" on Apple's UK homepage, and is a mealy mouthed six-paragraph account of the litigation over Apple's registered design.
Find it OK? Apple's UK homepage
Two paragraphs acknowledge the court ruling, and four are devoted to digs at Samsung. It includes quotes from the judge saying that Samsung's fondleslab is "not as cool" as the iPad, and ends with a self-righteous declaration that courts in other countries have decided differently:
"So while the UK court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognised that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung wilfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad."
Read that non-apology in full here.
Judge Jacob, dismissing Apple's appeal against Birss' initial ruling, specified a font and font-size - Arial, size 14 - for the print version of the statement to appear in UK newspapers, but web visitors may have a harder time finding Apple's non-apology on the UK homepage. Even with a high-resolution Retina screen bringing every detail on the page to "resolutionary" glory, it's still a small link.
The registered design at the heart of the court case concerned features of the iPad, such as it being a thin rectangular slab with four slightly rounded corners, a screen that went to the rim of the device, and an "overall design of extreme simplicity". ®
COMMENTS
Re: Called it
Or maybe they'll piss the judge off enough for him to pull them up for contempt of court ... especially the bit about the court in Germany which he specifically commented on in his own ruling
Re: Called it
"They're complying exactly with the ridiculous demand the court imposed."
Whether you, or Apple, or anybody else thinks it is ridiculous, it is what the court have told them to do. By making it obvious how much they disagree within the court-mandated post, they are showing contempt for the courts decision.
Re: Called it
Apple really left me speechless when I read that this morning - I expected some tiny text link to a terse statement of the facts of the court decision. What I didn't expect was the... frankly childish statement they posted up instead. It's like telling a child to say sorry for hurting someone, and them saying "I'm sorry you thought I hurt you... but my mate Fred said that he thought I didn't hurt you at all so there"
Contempt of court or not I would be incredibly surprised if this is the end of the story; I can't see any judge standing for this sort of behaviour. As Dr Mouse says, they are definitely showing contempt of the courts.
Re: Called it
"Or maybe they'll piss the judge off enough for him to pull them up for contempt of court"
I think they are treading a very fine line. They are just about complying with the letter of the ruling, maybe.
Whether or not it is legally "contempt of court", they are showing contempt for the court.
Re: Called it
Looks contemptuous to me.
So while the UK court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognised that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung wilfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad.
Using "recognised" is perhaps key (and more so when set against "did not find" ), suggesting it being a matter of fact there was copying and suggesting the court returned the wrong judgement.
It could have been phrased far more neutrally so, given it wasn't, it can be argued they were striving to show the UK court as wrong and being contemptuous of its judgement.
