News - UK Court orders Apple to advertise 'Samsung did not copy'

[HEXUS]

Must advertise this fact on Apple website for six months and in UK newspapers.

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[azza1991]

Well this just proves that the UK justice system does get it right sometimes! i for one have had enough of all this petty squabbling...

[scaryjim]

(linked from http://www.thelawyer.com/saga-continues-after-porn-pirates-firm-folds/1006954.article)

This man thinks the iPad is cool. Are you sure you still want one...

[Roobubba]

Oh, I lol'd.

[mark22]

Love it, hope other judges around the world look at this.

[crossy]

Anyone want to club together for some Germolene for Apple UK? Seeing as they must be smarting badly after the "bitch slapping" they just got given!

Judge Birss, in order to make his point that the two devices were different, openly stated that he didn't think the GALAXY Tab was as cool and did not feature the "extreme simplicity" of the iPad, producing a different overall impression;

Hmm, I'm going to tentatively agree with that as a fair statement - iPad's are perceived as being "cool"/"fashionable" devices in a way that a G.T. isn't. As to "extreme simplicity" I'm less sure - Gingerbread based tablets are complex c.f. iPad, but Honeycomb and now ICS have narrowed the gap. In fact, I'd argue, to the point where a first line ICS tablet (Asus Transformer, Galaxy Tab, etc) is a match in terms of user experience for an iPad. I'll admit that there's bits where iOS is better than ICS, conversely there's also parts of iOS that are less "simple" than their ICS equivalents. Horses for courses.

Now, as to the "apology" - anyone care to bet against this being in 6 point text buried with the small print?

All in all a good decision though. Hopefully, the first of many, and then we can get back to innovation rather than litigation.

[Vaad]

Amazing, I can see the Advert now. UK Judge says Samsung did not copy us. Samsung's Tab is not as "cool" or features " extreme simplicity " as the Ipad. To be honest I think this is a win for Apple!

[miniyazz]

Rofl.

[aidanjt]

Amazing, I can see the Advert now. UK Judge says Samsung did not copy us. Samsung's Tab is not as "cool" or features " extreme simplicity " as the Ipad. To be honest I think this is a win for Apple!

Somehow I don't think a stuffy old lord justice's 'endorsement' will make hipsters feel that they're in the cool zone with Apple.

[cameronlite]

Amazing, I can see the Advert now. UK Judge says Samsung did not copy us. Samsung's Tab is not as "cool" or features " extreme simplicity " as the Ipad. To be honest I think this is a win for Apple!

Exactly, maybe the Judge refused to completely sell out so only partially did.

[GaryRW]

(linked from http://www.thelawyer.com/saga-contin...006954.article)

This man thinks the iPad is cool. Are you sure you still want one...

Deeply sad as it is to have read the judgments, but I do think the way he handled the ACS law / Mediacat cases* shows he is actually pretty tech-savvy for a high court judge. Still not exactly uber cool though...

On topic - there does thankfully seem to be a much greater degree of common sense in the patent/IP cases over here. But we all know that the UK market is small fry compared to the overall international market and the US in particular, and that's where the real fights are taking place.

*i.e the 000's of letters sent out to people saying that, based purely on your IP, we think you downloaded XXXXX - give us £1000 or we'll take you court and publicly accuse you of downloading porn

[crossy]

Amazing, I can see the Advert now. UK Judge says Samsung did not copy us. Samsung's Tab is not as "cool" or features " extreme simplicity " as the Ipad. To be honest I think this is a win for Apple!

And then Samsung replies with adverts that go along the lines of "Are you the kind of person who needs "extreme simplicity" in your tablet? Or are you sophisticated enough to handle something more grown up?"

And then cut to a picture of an old "Speak N Spell" with an apple core on it sitting next to a shiny Galaxy Tab showing some iPlayer etc.

Anyone who seriously thinks that this decision is a "win" for Apple is kidding themselves - after all, do you really think that a UK high court judge fits into Apple's consumer aspirations?

[martian_aphid]

serves them right, he should have also forced them to make TV adverts about it too

[dangel]

Anyone who seriously thinks that this decision is a "win" for Apple is kidding themselves - after all, do you really think that a UK high court judge fits into Apple's consumer aspirations?

I've already seen people trying to promote it as a "win". My god, that's amazingly dumb. No company ever ever wants to have to mention a competitor and to have to do it in a light that praises that competitor is absolutely cutting. Apple don't even have room to spin it either - because if they do the court will see it as not being in the spirit of paying for the damage to Samsung's reputation.

Most amusing, couldn't happen to a nicer company.

Must buy some samsung products tomorrow.

[Spud1]

This is ridiculous, making a mockery of the British legal system..why is supposed to be more sensible/logical than the american or EU courts..but clearly not.

First of all a Judge making a clear comment as "Your device is not as cool as Apples"...what? Is there now a legal definition of cool? Then forcing Apple to advertise that the Galaxy Tab was not a poor clone of the iPad..again what kind of punishment is that? Absolutely ridiculous.

The judge may be correct - the iPad is clearly cooler than any Android device when referring to the general public, and although Samsung's Android UI layer is a blatant copy of the iOS home screens, it's just about different enough to get away with it in a purely legal sense. Plus of course once you deviate off the home screen you are thrown into the usual myriad of complicated [to the average user, not geeks] Android config screens and menus, so legally they are pretty safe.

Still on the plus side there have not been any financial losses on either side apart from legal fees, and the reality is that this judgement won't really affect Apple or Samsung aside from a tiny tiny bit of bad press.

[superlattice09]

Ridiculous is exactly the right word to describe this. Lol