British judge gives it just 48 hours to amend website wording
Apple has been given a slap on the wrist by a British High Court judge for for posting an inaccurate website statement meant to acknowledge that rival Samsung did not infringe the iPad tablet’s registered design. In a humiliating rebuke to the Californian giant, Judge Robin Jacob ordered it to to put up an amended version within 48 hours and place adverts in UK newspapers that more accurately stated how it had lost to Samsung at a hearing last month.
Apple had acknowledged the case on its website, but had also pointed to cases it had won against Samsung in other countries including the USA where Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $1.05bn (£651 million) in August.
The company’s statement declared, “Other courts have recognised that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad.”
Though Apple’s statement on its site did contain the elements that it was instructed to insert according to the Court of Appeal and High Court rulings, Apple added four other paragraphs – including extracts from His Honour Judge Birss’s original ruling in July [2012] where he referred to the company’s designs as “cool” and contrasted them against Samsung’s, which he said lacked the same qualities.
But Apple’s acknowledgement to the court verdict, put up last week and tucked away via a tiny link from its home page , was deemed to be “non-compliant” with the order that the court had made earlier.
Judge Jacob told the hearing, “I am at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this.”
The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Longmore and Lord Justice Kitchin, ordered Apple to correct the statement within 48 hours – snubbing Apple’s request for two weeks to alter it.
Apple was also ordered to carry the correction on its home page and use at least 11-point font. It has so far declined to comment on the new ruling.
