Apple apologizes to Samsung on UK site, but not without a hint of salt
Throughout this legal battle between Samsung and Apple it seems the latter has gotten the upper-hand in almost every case there is if the case hasn’t been completely thrown out. A ruling in the US determined Samsung infringed on several Apple patents, and as a result Samsung was asked to pay just over $1 billion in damages. In Germany Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 was said to be infringing on the iPad, and Samsung faced a temporary injunction in that region.
But things didn’t go so smoothly over in the UK. The only region that seems to have any sense ruled that Samsung’s products did not infringe on the iPad, though the reasoning was quite silly: the judge deemed Samsung’s tablets weren’t “cool enough” to be mistaken for an iPad. As a result of losing that case, Apple was asked to do something rather unusual — a statement had to be posted to the company’s UK website stating that Samsung did not infringe on its products.
Apple followed through, of course — after all, it’s a legal judgment and after a quick appeals process there was little they could do to avoid it. They did indeed acknowledge that Samsung’s products were ruled not to be infringing, but they, of course, just had to include the little blurb about the fact that it was because the products weren’t “cool” enough.
And the buck didn’t stop there. Apple just couldn’t help but remind people about the rulings in the United States and Germany, though, and reminding everyone that there were more markets than the UK that saw things their way.
It almost reminds me of that bully in a fight who always had to have the last word, and even in detention they had to tell everyone how much they pwned the little guy. It’s Apple’s right, of course, but it still makes the company sound as petty as we already thought it was. Go ahead and read the statement at Apple.com if you care.