Apple Posts Updated, Corrected Statement on UK Samsung Patent Ruling

FreddyNovember 3, 2012

As part of Apple’s recent legal attack on Samsung products, their legal battle in the UK actually ended with Apple being ordered to post a statement on their UK website acknowledging that Samsung did not in fact copy the iPad. However, in the original statement they posted, Apple selected the quotes from the ruling that stated things such as:

“The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking. Overall it has undecorated flat surfaces with a plate of glass on the front all the way out to a very thin rim and a blank back. There is a crisp edge around the rim and a combination of curves, both at the corners and the sides. The design looks like an object the informed user would want to pick up and hold. It is an understated, smooth and simple product. It is a cool design.”

Once this was posted, a UK judge ordered Apple to remove the inaccurate statement, and comply fully with the ruling:

The court’s initial order to post a notice was designed to correct the impression that the South Korean company was copying Apple’s product. Apple’s post, criticized by judges today, inserted four paragraphs including excerpts of the original “cool” ruling and details of similar German lawsuits that the court today said weren’t true.“I’m at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this,” Judge Robin Jacob said today. “That is a plain breach of the order.”

As of today, Apple has given in to the pressure, and has revised the sassy “cool” statement with a boring review of the facts. This text can be found on Apple’s UK website here, and reads as follows:

Samsung / Apple UK judgment

On 9 July 2012 the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Samsung Electronic(UK) Limited’s Galaxy Tablet Computers, namely the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 do notinfringe Apple’s Community registered design No. 0000181607-0001. A copy of the full judgment of
the High Court is available from www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2012/1882.html.
That Judgment has effect throughout the European Union and was upheld by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales on 18 October 2012. A copy of the Court of Appeal’s judgment is available from www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2012/1339.html. There is no injunction in respect of the Community registered design in force anywhere in Europe.

We will have to wait and see how Apple chooses to respond to this, but for now it seems like at least some of the dust has settled.