Today, UK courts decided that Apple’s “apology” (if you could call it that) to Samsung was non-compliant. Consequently, the court ordered Apple to reconstruct a new apology within 48 hours, to which Apple lawyers responded they couldn’t possibly come up with a new response that quickly and would at least need two weeks to write a new one. Two weeks to come up with a new way to say “sorry”? Even the judge doesn’t believe that statement is true.
Basically Apple put up a statement on their UK website that was supposed to be an apology, but turned into a slap in the face to the UK court judge who ordered the apology to be written. To quote it, it says:
“On 9th July 2012 the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Samsung Electronic(UK) Limited’s Galaxy Tablet Computer, namely the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 do not infringe Apple’s registered design No. 0000181607-0001…”
That’s a start. It’s factual. However, the next two paragraphs are a series of quotes from other courts who praise Apple products, statements like “The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking.” and “They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.” Really? You’re going to use the quote that Samsung’s designs are not as “cool”?
The next paragraph (the smallest) is the one that states that the UK court judge did not agree that Samsung infringed upon Apple’s registered designs. However, that paragraph is then followed by another large paragraph stating that Germany said Samsung did copy the iPad design (however, factually speaking, Germany did not side with either manufacturer). They finish the statement with this gem:
“So while the U.K. court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad.”
Pow! Right in the kisser. After reading this entire statement, I’ve come to the conclusion that Apple’s apology could hardly be described as so and is a pitiful attempt. I don’t even see an actual apology. They completely beat around the bush. I don’t know about you guys, but all I’m reading is:
UK Court: Apple, apologize to Samsung.
Apple: I don’t wanna!
UK Court: Apple…
Apple: Fine. Samsung, I’m sorry… that you aren’t creative enough to make your own design!
UK Court: Apple! Go sit in the corner!
[End scene]
Some of you may recall the other day I wrote an article asking why Apple fans and Android lovers can’t be friends and get along. Apple being as elitist as they are right now really make this argument hard to fight for them! Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple’s products, but the way they go about business is very distasteful. I feel like they could be more professional about it instead of coming off as whiny as they do.
As a result of their childish gesture, the UK court judge reprimanded Apple’s statement and ordered Apple by court to write a new one. “Apple must now within 48 hours publish a correction on their homepage with a link to the corrected statement in not less than 11-point font.” You hear that, Apple? 11-point font.
This means serious business now.
Quotes from The Guardian
