Judge orders Apple to Publish “Samsung Didn’t Copy Apple”
A Judge Is Forcing Apple To Publish On Its own Website That Samsung Didn’t Copy Apple.
Apple Inc. was ordered by a judge to publish a notice on its U.K. website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t copy designs for the iPad.
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 today.
It should be posted on Apple’s U.K. home page for six months and published in several newspapers and magazines to correct any 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, Richard Hacon, a lawyer for Apple, told the court. “No company likes to refer to a rival on its website.”
Legal battles about the similarity of Samsung and Apple tablets are being fought in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S.
Public Statements
“They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” said the judge at the time.
“They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different.”
He declined today to grant Samsung’s bid for an injunction blocking Apple from making public statements that the Galaxy infringed its design rights.
“They are entitled to their opinion,” he said.
Apple spokesman Alan Hely didn’t immediately respond to a phone call and e-mail requesting comment on the judge’s order.
“Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited,” Samsung said in a statement after the hearing.
‘Commercial Harm’
Comments made by Apple after that ruling unfairly implied that Samsung had copied designs, Samsung’s lawyer Kathryn Pickard said at the hearing. That “caused real commercial harm.”
According to a draft copy of the order provided by Samsung’s lawyers, as well as Apple’s website, the company must pay for notices in the the following newspapers and magazines:
- Financial Times
- The Daily Mail
- Guardian Mobile magazine
- T3
Apple’s lawyer said the company would appeal the July 9 decision and Judge Birss granted the company permission to take its case to the court of appeal.
