In a bizarre legal twist, Apple has finally posted an apology on their UK Homepage to Samsung as a UK judgment demanded of them. Yet Apple-Legal decided to play by the letter of the law and used it as an opportunity to set the record straight about Samsung copying the iPad design and more. In the end, Apple took a tough situation and turned water into wine. Updated Nov 01, 2012
UK Apology to Samsung Backfires as Apple Sets the Record Straight
In October, a judge in the United Kingdom had delivered a stinging rebuke of Apple, ordering them to run ads publicly apologizing to Samsung. Apple was ordered to publish newspaper advertisements and a statement on its website acknowledging that Samsung hadn't copied its designs. As first discovered by MacRumors, the apology is now on Apple's UK site. At the bottom of Apple's UK homepage is a link for "Samsung/Apple UK judgement."
The apology is presented to you below in full; and it's anything but an apology.
Other than pointing consumers to two specific links (one, two) to two differing court judgements, there isn't a straight forward apology. In fact, as you could see for yourself, Apple used the opportunity to inform the public that "in Germany regarding the same patent, the court found that Samsung engaged in unfair competition by copying the iPad design." Additionally "A US jury also found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple's design and utility patents, awarding over one billion US dollars in damages to Apple Inc."
I'm sure that Samsung-legal will be pulling their hair out this morning as well as yelling and rending their garments. They were fully expecting a groveling Apple statement of apology and instead got spit in the face. It was bizarre for a judge to grant such a political judgement, but Apple-Legal's brilliance turned the table on Samsung. Well done Apple-Legal, well done!
Report Update November 01, 2012: See our new follow-up report titled "Apple Given 48 Hours to Correct their Apology to Samsung."
I'd like to thank the many Android fans who emailed me the news of this new development in the case this mornng, the very second it went online. Despite your mean spirited demon-spitting language (ha, I only exaggerate a little), I've provided equal space for a report update.
Cheers
Jack Purcher
