Apple Vs Samsung

Apple's Snarky 'Apology' To Samsung Does Not Impress Judge; Company Must Apologize Again Over Copycat Claims 

Apple must re-write a statement posted on its website acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe on its registered designs for tablet computers, and place it more prominently on its homepage, a court in the UK ruled on Thursday.

The statement was deemed to be "non-compliant" with the order in a previous High Court judgment that concluded Samsung's Galaxy tablet did not infringe Apple's designs, in part because its products were "not as cool".

The world's two leading smartphone makers are fighting over patents, both for smartphones and for tablets like Apple's iPad, in courts around the world.

South Korea's Samsung argued that Apple's statement, which made potentially confusing references to German and U.S. court decisions as well as the British ruling, was "inaccurate and misleading".

Judges agreed and said Apple must post the new statement within the next 48 hours, although the U.S. company said it would need two weeks to post the notice.

Judge Robin Jacob told Apple's lawyer, Michael Beloff, he did not believe that it would be difficult to post a new statement on the website.

"I would like to see the head of Apple make an affidavit about why that is such a technical difficulty for the Apple company," the Press Association quoted Jacob as saying. "This is Apple that cannot put something on their own website?".

Apple declined to comment on the ruling.

Apple doesn't say sorry to just anyone.

As you might recall, the tech giant recently lost a heated patent battle against Samsung in U.K. courts this past July. In a somewhat awkward ruling, the judge stated Samsung's products were simply "not cool" enough to be replicas. Thus Apple was ordered to issue an apology to the South Korean-based company.

But the snarky letter recently uploaded to Apple's U.K. website isn't exactly apologetic. (Then again, did we really think it would be?) In fact, a main chunk of text is devoted to the judge's explanation of how Apple's devices are for the "informed user," while Samsung's products are, um..., not.

"The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking," one portion of the court's ruling states in the so-called apology letter. "It is a cool design." Then further down the judge's (somewhat surprising) comments about Samsung are (somewhat shamelessly) printed again, for all to witness:

    …But the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.

Some apology, eh?

Fast Company reports the letter will published to Apple's site for one month. The Next Web also notes if you're looking for the apology on the U.K. website, it's "buried" toward the bottom right corner of the homepage.

But all of this isn't to say that Apple doesn't know how to admit when it's wrong. The company did issue a more sincere apology after the release of the iPhone 5, when customers began to vehemently complain about the half-baked Apple Maps on iOS 6. "We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better," CEO Tim Cook stated in a letter posted on Apple's website in September.

So Apple is capable of saying "sorry." But maybe, in the case of its bitter rivalry with Samsung, it's not willing to give a heartfelt apology.

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