Apple’s patent battle with Samsung will just never end. The two companies have been locked in litigation proceedings around the world since spring of 2011, and just as quickly as resolution seems feasible, somebody appeals or countersues, so we have to start all over. By summer of this year, there were over 50 Apple-Samsung-related lawsuits in eight different countries, collectively worth billions of dollars in damages. Meanwhile, it’s entirely unclear how consumers will benefit from any of this nonsense.The latest almost resolution happened in the United Kingdom, where a judge ruled earlier this month that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab did not violate the iPad’s patents. It wasn’t “cool enough” to be an iPad copy, he said. As if the judgement itself wasn’t enough to piss Apple off, the judge also ordered the Cupertino, California company to issue an apology of sorts acknowledging that Samsung did not, in fact, copy Apple’s iPad design, according to the High Court. The judge also required Apple to post a link to the statement prominently on its UK website for one month.Samsung was not happy with Apple’s attempted apology. The font was too small, so you could barely see the link on the home page. It contained a few false statements, Samsung said, and furthermore, the language was so caked in legalese, the average person would have a hard time figuring out what the heck Apple was trying to say. Does this really sound like an apology?.The informed user’s overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following. From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; 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. … 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.The judge didn’t think so either. “I’m at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this. That is a plain breach of the order,” Sir Robin Jacob said after Apple issued the statement. Apple’s lawyers disagreed and tried to fight back, but they eventually agreed to issue a new statement. It would take 14 days for their website to refresh, however. “I just can’t believe the instructions you’ve been given,” Jacobs said, exasperated. “This is Apple. They cannot put something on their website?” Not if they don’t want to! Jacobs nevertheless stood by his ordered and added additional provisions that Apple must run the statement as an ad in a number of major newspaper and trade magazines.Inevitably, Apple gave in and published a new statement. If you can figure out what it means, congratulations on graduating from law school: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. A copy of the full judgment of the High court is available on the following link www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2012/1882.html. That Judgment has effect throughout the European Union and was upheld by the Court of Appeal on 18 October 2012. A copy of the Court of Appeal’s judgment is available on the following link www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2012/1339.html.**** There is no injunction in respect of the registered design in force anywhere in Europe.It’s unclear when Apple will get around to fixing its website. Two weeks does seem like a pretty extreme delay. That said, though, they have a lot of other lawsuits against Samsung to tend to, so I’m sure they’re busy. In the meantime, let’s just get this out there: Apple, you stink at apologizing.Image via Flickr
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