The UK court of appeal has scolded Apple over the phrasing of the statement on its website acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe the iPad tablet’s registered design.
The salutation to Samsung was put up during the last week of October and was visible on the Apple homepage in a quiet footer link. The Court has claimed that this link is “non-compliant” with the order that was made.
Apple were ordered to put the statement on the homepage rather than utilising a small link to direct visitors their.
The court has now ordered Apple to correct the statement within the next 48 hours. The statement currently closes with
“However, in a case tried in Germany regarding the same patent, the court found that Samsung engaged in unfair competition by copying the iPad design. A U.S. jury also found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s design and utility patents, awarding over one billion U.S. dollars in damages to Apple Inc. So while the U.K. court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad.”
Another crucial factor in the court’s contempt is that Apple was ordered to explicitly acknowledge that its rival, Samsung, did not copy the iPad’s design.
Though Apple did do that, it also added in details from other court cases in the US relating to other non-design patents to suggest that other courts had found against Samsung.
Apple has correspondingly been told it must take out adverts with the same statements in the Financial Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, T3 magazine and Mobile magazine. None of these advertisements have been registered or printed as of the time this article was published.
The statement has been labelled as “distorting the reality of the case” since Apple has not disclosed any of the court decisions that didn’t rule in their favour.
