News - Judge dismayed by Apple’s begrudging apology to Samsung

[HSK]

u guys seen the one is the paper? They don't even mention the words sorry, apology, and apologies anywhere!

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/11/app...ore-heartfelt/

[SonOfTux]

So when exactly does the 24hr deadline run out? i.e How long left untill Apple 'might' be in contempt of the order?

[GaryRW]

Then freedom of speech applies.

Original judgment relating to the notice : http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/...2012/2049.html

27. Finally, and most importantly in my judgment, Article 10 and freedom of speech would be engaged. An injunction of this kind, it seems to me, risks engaging the right to free speech. No development of these principles was made before me. All I will say is that I foresee serious difficulties in relation to freedom of speech arising from an injunction of this kind.

i.e. Apple didn't even raise that as a serious argument.

Now how big a scoop would Hexus have if they could prove that Apple were using bots to make pro-Apple posts in tech forums....

[Scribe]

As a retired attorney, I laugh at this as totally asinine, arrogant behavior on the part of this Judge. Apple complied word-for-word with his order as to what was to be published. Then freedom of speech applies. The Judge has NO business prohibiting Apple from directly quoting from the Judge's comments in explaining his decision! Nor has he the authority to prohibit Apple from telling its customers and shareholders what other courts in other countries have ruled. Another Little Lord Fauntleroy in the court system!

I like how you've registered just for this. I'm hoping it's a funny joke! In the UK we have human rights and our own take on freedoms, however we don't have the US constitution and so don't expect word for word execution there. Apple essentially broke the law by interfering with court proceedings and under this scenario, freedom of speech rights are sacrificed. When we adopted European Article 10, this was done so with exceptions and, this is one of them.

If Apple had acted without the bounds of the law, a system set-up to ensure fairness of rights, then there wouldn't have been an issue.

[cjs150]

As a retired attorney, I laugh at this as totally asinine, arrogant behavior on the part of this Judge. Apple complied word-for-word with his order as to what was to be published. Then freedom of speech applies. The Judge has NO business prohibiting Apple from directly quoting from the Judge's comments in explaining his decision! Nor has he the authority to prohibit Apple from telling its customers and shareholders what other courts in other countries have ruled. Another Little Lord Fauntleroy in the court system!

If you are a retired barrister then you should know that before criticising a judgment it is a good idea to read it first. The judgment is carefully reasoned and takes into account freedom of speech.

In fact Apple's barrister stated to the judge that the injunction was not necessary because Apple were no longer alleging that Samsung's product infringed. So Apple putting up a notice on their website pointing out other courts disagreed means that Apple will have severely embarrassed their own barrister.

The simple fact is that Apple were ordered to do something and tried to get around it. Then they made fools on themselves by suggesting it would take ages to comply. I can forsee the judge getting very annoyed and handing down contempt of court fines. And he would be right to do so

[Zerox]

I think that everyone needs to calm down about this "RETIREDBARRISTER" individual, who has probably held no job in the legal profession whatsoever. He is not worth it.

To facilitate this calming down I produce to you an article of how Apple has been punked....... by Mexico.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...w/17060549.cms

Stop lynching, start laughing please.

EDIT: I cannot find the actual judgement unfortunately, but hopefully this article provides a little more credibility (yes I know that this is Fox News before anyone points it out lol).

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...ase-in-mexico/

*Le Sigh* Oh Apple, why did you try and sue them first? Did you not do your research and realise that they registered "iFone" in 2003? Now look at the mess you have made. Not allowed to sell iPhones in Mexico, and now iFone are after 40% of the iPhone sales revenues. Uh-Oh

[Biscuit]

I think that everyone needs to calm down about this "RETIREDBARRISTER" individual, who has probably held no job in the legal profession whatsoever. He is not worth it.

To facilitate this calming down I produce to you an article of how Apple has been punked....... by Mexico.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...w/17060549.cms

Stop lynching, start laughing please.

Is that true? If so its more brilliant news IMO.

[crossy]

Is that true? If so its more brilliant news IMO.

Yep, it's true, and here's the best bit (from http://bgr.com/2012/11/02/iphone-law...alysis-mexico/)

Ironically enough, Fox News Latino reports that Apple originally sued iFone in Mexico in order to force the Mexican company to stop using its own name. The suit backfired dramatically, as iFone was able to prove its trade name predates iPhone by several years.

Ashamed to admit that the first sentence caused a coffee-spray and I nearly choked. Not a good week for Apple...

[Biscuit]

Yep, it's true, and here's the best bit (from http://bgr.com/2012/11/02/iphone-law...alysis-mexico/)

Ashamed to admit that the first sentence caused a coffee-spray and I nearly choked. Not a good week for Apple...

What a fantastic example of why Apple need to wind their neck back in and get on with making products!

[avi8tor]

“This is Apple. They cannot put something on their website?”
Correctamundo!

Comedy gold, unfortunately shading a more sinister beast below. Frankly, at this point and massive great fine (preferably to go to charities!) would be in order: something to give Apple a wrap on the knuckles, to bruise that gargantuan, hideous, misplaced ego of theirs, and also do some good in this world rather than feeding this litigation machine.
But that won't happen.

I agree, this would be ideal, but also think about the internal effect that this "embarrassment" is causing, not to mention the global public awareness of Apple as a (bully) company - if only Samsung could somehow wrap this up and advertise/milk it!?

[pauleden]

All Apple had to do was post a simple paragraph - it wasn't particularly damning to them and it wouldn't of caused much harm (or get noticed for the most part) - instead they've deliberately taken the pee out of the court and now they're left with a more prominent notice and heap of bad press showing how childish they were.

Agreed. But remember Apple are very aware they are preaching to the converted. They know that they are unlikely to be tempting new consumers into the Apple fold. The buyers of the iPhone5, iPad3 and the mini iPad are almost exclusively existing Apple customers, usually with more money than sense. So a bit of poor PR isn't going to hurt them.

I'd have liked to have seen a judgement of contempt of court. I read the original page when Apple first put it up. I read it a couple of times. As usual, the wrangling of the English language made me heave, but that's not a charge I would level exclusively at Apple. What I noticed was how they attempted to turn it into an Apple advert because they were aware the page would get a lot of traffic. I await the new page with interest.

[ajones]

So the Mexicans are blocking America from crossing the border?

Is that an example of irony?

[ChronSyn]

All Apple had to do was post a simple paragraph - it wasn't particularly damning to them and it wouldn't of caused much harm (or get noticed for the most part) - instead they've deliberately taken the pee out of the court and now they're left with a more prominent notice and heap of bad press showing how childish they were.

Agreed. But remember Apple are very aware they are preaching to the converted. They know that they are unlikely to be tempting new consumers into the Apple fold. The buyers of the iPhone5, iPad3 and the mini iPad are almost exclusively existing Apple customers, usually with more money than sense. So a bit of poor PR isn't going to hurt them.

I own both an iPad 3 and an iPhone 4. I never have had, nor do i ever intend to have, a Mac desktop or laptop (perhaps outside of development should i wish to head in that direction). As such, i'm not one of the converted, but i do hold some rather extreme views on Apple (in a negative way) for the way they're spitting the dummy out at every opportunity.

The wording they used on the page is crude. For example, saying something "is not as cool" when it's in relation to a ruling like the one that required them to write the notice is not professional in any way. When you consider it's one of the most talked about events in the tech world (so much so that even my technophobe parents know about it, even down to the details of what the ruling was against) is a +1 towards a Darwin award for Apple as a whole. Honestly, i wouldn't shed a tear if they went under. That's unlikely to happen, but in that case, i'd gladly settle for them being put back in their place and co-existing happily alongside others, instead of trying to "patent everything with a rounded corner".

[spoon_]

Website has been updated, its down the bottom on main page now:

"On 25 October 2012, Apple Inc. published a statement on its UK website in relation to Samsung's Galaxy tablet computers. That statement was inaccurate and did not comply with the order of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales."

New statement:

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal-judgement/

[Jonj1611]

See if they had done that in the first place hardly anyone would have noticed and they would have got no where near the publicity, should say bad publicity they got.

[Bambooz]

Website has been updated, its down the bottom on main page now:

Yep.. and there's the next reason for the judge to be pissed at apple
They're using javascript to make the footer on the main page (apple.com/uk) always be out of plain sight, no matter what screen resolution you're on. You have to scroll down or you won't see it.

http://i.imgur.com/KH555.jpg

^ That screenshot explanation thingy is from yesterday. As of today, they're doing the resizing on all sites (US/AU/NZ/DK/DE/FR/NL .. you get the idea) instead of just the UK one.
Pathetic is hardly the word..