Apple and Samsung have been duking it out in court rooms around the world for many months, and a ruling today brings an interesting twist to the never-ending saga.
A U.K. judge has ordered Apple to admit on its website and in British newspapers that Samsung has not copied the design of the iPad. Previously, the U.K. court had ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs didn’t ripoff the iPad because “they are not as cool.” What today’s ruling essentially means is that Apple will have to advertise for Samsung’s Galaxy series on the web and in British newspapers.
Bloomberg reports:
The notice should outline the July 9 London court decision that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets don’t infringe Apple’s registered designs, Judge Colin Birss said. It should be posted on Apple’s U.K. website for six months and published in several newspapers and magazines to correct the damaging impression the South Korea-based company was copying Apple’s product, Birss said.
The order means Apple will have to publish “an advertisement” for Samsung, and is prejudicial to the company, Richard Hacon, a lawyer representing Cupertino, California-based Apple, told the court. “No company likes to refer to a rival on its website.”
Both Apple and Samsung have repeatedly accused each other of ripping off product and software designs. The whole string of disputes is based off fundamental questions about the legitimacy of prior art, generic design standards, and the minefield known as software patents.
It will be interesting to see how Apple spins this required PR for Samsung. The picture of Apple doing any sort of advertising at all for another company—especially one like Samsung—is very hard to imagine.
Apple is not only battling Samsung in court over patent infringement, but other tech companies like HTC and Google.
Source: Bloomberg
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
20 responses to “Judge Forces Apple To Admit That Samsung Didn’t Copy The iPad”
Funny Apple went after this product, which is the least of Samsuck’s copy-cat products. At any rate, I’d tell the UK court to go pound sand…
Actually all touch-screen tablets are copies of the iPad since it came out. Maybe not exact copies, but as far as form and function. How many of them existed before the iPad? Exactly. Just like the iPhone changed what a smartphone should be.
Ha Ha. Apple gets a gas face. Justice = served. This is all nonsense. Apple needs to put efforts in designing new products instead of constantly trying to play defense.
Anyone who questions that Samsung wants to be Apple, look no farther than this…
http://www.pcworld.com/article/259259/samsungapple_rivalry_spreads_to_retail_stores.html
Never mind that most every Samsung product violates at least 5 Apple patents. If someone stole your work and you had a legal basis for reacting, wouldn’t you?
There were plenty of touch interface tablets before the iPad.
I love Apple products but these law suits are stupid. If Apple has a problem with Android then leave the manufactures alone and go after Google. As far as design of the hardware goes, there are only so many ways you can design a rectangular box, most every touchscreen smartphone will look a bit like an iPhone and most every 10inch tablet will look a bit like the iPad there isn’t really anyway around it. These products only have a limited amount of designs that make sense.
Ridiculous ruling. Throw out the lawsuit by all means, but a foreced web site statement is going too far.
Samsung just spit in Apple’s face. This is humiliation 101. Posting a comment on their own website saying Samsung didn’t copy the ipad, just show and proves Apple is a bunch of liars. Stock holders aren’t going to like this!!
Ha! Common sence prevails in one part of the world at least! The new Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab 2 is REALLY cool, and looks nothing like the iPad, it looks great!
Apple’s “Samsung didn’t copy the iPod” ad:
Samsung didn’t copy the iPad. Even a judge admitted Samsung isn’t good enough to copy the iPad. Don’t settle for second-best, get the original: The new iPad.
Which is why Apple will appeal on the grounds that the Judge is overstepping. This wasn’t a libel case where such a thing makes sense.
If they lose the appeal they will post it as something like ‘the courts dont agree that Samsung merely copied our design. You decide for yourself.’
Apple should do a massive UK ad-campaign saying: Samsung dit not copy the iPad design…or what do you think? Think different!
oh yeah it’s not like apple has gotten any samsung devices banned from several countries of anything, this judge is totally being a jerk. I mean he could just make apple pay another cool 96 million bucks like they put up in the US, who or what company doesn’t have that type of change in their pocket?
and if I already shelled out for an samsung tablet with ice cream sandwich? which for the record has many features and options that apple has started to copy for the ipad and ios, whom is copying whom?
oh like your such a fit troll?
sure go ahead tell apple, make them lose some money… like a cool 96 million bucks like they had to put up for grabs in America. That seems less drastic, I mean it’s not like apple hasn’t been suing this same company in +5 different countries now, I guess apple is really just wanting to stop a thief from taking their “innovation”, which comes from android 4.0 and will come from 4.1.
lol, you sure know your history, but oh wait touchscreens have been an idea since the 80s and then made a reality shortly after. I think these things called pda’s had that; both captive and haptic touchscreens.
Yet if I were to count the number of things aple has taken from google the who osx and IOS thing would seem like a big old copypasta.
It is unfortunate that Apple has lost its case but as the party intiating the case they take the brunt of punishment. Perhaps it is just the judge feeling that disputes like this should be dealt with not in court but in the marketplace. If the iPad is a better product it should sell well, if there is a product that better fits the consumer’s needs and resources that product will sell well. This case among others that Apple has been involved in has resulted in increased scrutiny of Apple. I can see respect for Apple suffering some sort of consumer backlash if they don’t follow through in the right way with the Ads. As an example anyone remember how everyone reacted to the ‘Antennae-gate’ fiasco a while back? SJ basically just said “Don’t hold it that way”.