UK Court of Appeal Reprimands Apple Over Mandated Samsung Statement

Macthorpe writes "In the UK, Apple were previously ordered to add a statement to their website stating that Samsung did not copy their designs, following a previous case where this was ruled by the UK courts. However, today the same court revealed that Apple's statement is not good enough. From the article: 'The acknowledgement put up last week, linked from the home page by a tiny link, was deemed to be "non-compliant" with the order that the court had made in October. The court has now ordered it to correct the statement – and the judges, Lord Justice Longmore, Lord Justice Kitchin and Sir Robin Jacob, indicated that they were not pleased with Apple's failure to put a simpler statement on the site.' It appears the main objection is the statement is on a separate page and only linked from the hompage — and that the statement is buried in marketing blurb, and also put next to references to a case Apple won."

Comments

And so we see

[samjam]

That the virtuous Apple only appears so when it can bend the law to cover itself.

And when it can't it appears as dirty as those it condemns.

Thus Apple's virtue is merely an accident of timing.

And in this case the clock starts ticking only when the judges are content. So draw it out, Apple, draw it out, and show the world the difference between Apple and Samsung.

Hilarious

[multicoregeneral]

I can totally see Apple having to do this three or four times before they get it right.

Pissing off judges

[onyxruby]

I'm surprised the judges didn't throw the book at them when they tried this bit:

Apple tried to argue that it would take at least 14 days to put a corrective statement on the site

How on earth did the person who argued that get away with not being charged with perjury? To be perfectly frank, I'm absolutely amazed that they got away with a simple reprimand. I would imagine that if Apple pulls another stunt that they will face much more than a reprimand.

Good-o

[ledow]

Because I read the statement originally and thought it was unnecessarily pretentious and liable to land them in more trouble than if they'd just played ball.

UK courts don't take lightly to humour or parody aimed at themselves. Undermining the same court that found you guilty in the factual legal statement you were ordered by that court to publish is literally just sticking two fingers up.

And the statement itself? I read it when it first came out and couldn't make head nor tail of it (you can find it here: http://www.apple.com/uk/legal-judgement/). Even just the comparison to the German court - that was unnecessarily snarky and there's a reason that corporate legal statements all sound the same and don't try to be humorous or clever.

If they'd just done as ordered and stated the bit that other courts had disagreed, fair enough. But they word it in "smart-arse" and that was always liable to make more fuss. And now, for their efforts to minimise customer damage, they are now in the news again for failing to comply with the original court order.

Well done, Apple. Keep it up. Because though you probably don't, I'd be quite interested to see just how far a UK court would go to drill you into the ground if you kept it up.

Re:Apples' response to the reprimand

[Rogerborg]

Indeed, but a key critera of a notice is that it be noticeable. Tucking it away in teenyfont among the nobody-reads-us links at the bottom of the page is an unreasonable interpretation of the modified order: "uncluttered" is not the same as "obscured".

Apple asked for and were gifted a reasonable compromise, and chose to take advantage of it. A sanction that simply restores the original order is appropriate.

Duh

[SmallFurryCreature]

All the non-fanboys called it out. Apple would pull a childish prank and the Judge would not find it remotely funny and give a tougher sentence.

The only question is how long it takes Apple to grow up.

All they achieved is to drag it out and now they got to display it on the front page. Go ahead, make another mess out of it. Judges LOVE to laugh. Because they always get to have the last one.

The funny thing is that if they had just complied, nobody would have cared. Now they get another round of articles all over the world to point how petty Apple is and how afraid they are of Samsung products.