Apple’s loss in UK courts over the Galaxy Tab’s alleged infringement on their iPad tablets is stinging enough. Being forced, by the courts, to publicly admit the competitor is in the right and have to leave said acknowledgement on your website for six months is salt in the wound. And that’s exactly what a UK judge declared in the ongoing back-and-forth courtroom battle between Apple and Samsung over the Galaxy Tab’s design.
The presiding judge, judge Colin Birss, stated that “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”. The “it” in question is the aforementioned statement/advertisement for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line of tablets, and how they do not infringe on Apple’s intellectual property as they have been claiming.
The same judge famously stated during a July 6th ruling that Samsung’s tablets were unlikely to be confused with Apple’s iPad because they simply were “not as cool”.
For Samsung, the ruling is a resounding success as they’ve already had to redesign one of their tablets once before. This time around Apple was arguing that Samsung’s redesign didn’t go far enough, and that the Galaxy Tab line was still too similar to the iPad. On the other hand, for Apple, the case is a huge blow to (at the very least) their morale. Having to publicly acknowledge you/your company was wrong and then go as far as publicly stating that right on your company website’s front page is certainly embarrassing. That said, any costs associated with the loss are trivial to a company with over $100 billion in cash in the bank.
It will be interesting to see how (if at all) this ruling affects the numerous other lawsuits Apple has their fingers in globally, and with many other companies over similar claims of infringement.
Source: Bloomberg | Via: Business Insider
