Bloomberg News reports that Apple Inc. (AAPL) has been ordered by a judge to issue a notice on its U.K. website stating that Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t copy designs for the iPad.
U.K judge Colin Birss said Apple’s statement must be published for six months and be distributed throughout several British magazines and newspapers.
Judge Birss mandated that the notice must outline the July 9 London court decision that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets don’t infringe Apple’s registered design. According to Birss, the design for the Galaxy tablets don’t give any impression the South Korea-based company was copying Apple’s product. The judge even went as far to say that Samsung’s tablets were unlikely to be confused with the iPad because they weren’t as distinctively “cool”.
“[Samsung’s Galaxy tablets] do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different,” Birss said.
Richard Hacon, a lawyer for Cupertino, California-based Apple, tried to argue in court saying that it would be like the company having to publish an advertisement for its competitor.
“No company likes to refer to a rival on its website,” Hacon said.
The judge apparently, believed that saving Samsung’s reputation was more important. Judge Birss however, didn’t grant Samsung’s request to block Apple from making public statements that the Galaxy Tab infringed Apple’s design, saying the Cupertino, California-based company is entitled to its opinion.
As well as Apple’s website, the iPhone and iPad maker must pay for notices in the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, Guardian Mobile magazine, and T3, according to a draft copy of the order provided by Samsung’s lawyers to Bloomberg News.
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