Tuesday, November 13, 2012

British Court Not Amused By Apple's Apology: Apple must pay ALL of Samsung’s court costs… including parking, phone calls etc (AAPL)

Hubris, thy name is Apple.
From CNN Money:

How Apple bent the truth in its Samsung tablet 'apology'
Many Apple (AAPL) aficionados got a kick out of the company's impudent response to a London High Court's order that it "clear the fog" it created by suing Samsung in the U.K. for allegedly copying the iPad's design -- a lawsuit it lost both in trial and appeal.

Ordered to post a two-paragraph corrective on its website and in the British press, Apple not only dragged its heels, but it broke up the required paragraphs and interspersed language of its own devising -- including a bit about a judge ruling that the Samsung Galaxy Tab was "not as cool" as the iPad -- language that was, according to Samsung, false and misleading. (See London court not amused.)

The court agreed. And in a judgment published Friday it admonished Apple in the strongest terms, ordered it to pay Samsung's legal fees on an "indemnity basis" (i.e. all possible costs, including parking, phone calls, etc. from day one), and spelled out precisely where Apple, in the language it added, basically lied.

 n the body of its judgment the court goes through Apple's additions sentence by sentence with the eye of a fact checker:

Apple wrote:
In the ruling, the judge made several important points comparing the designs of the Apple and Samsung products.

The court's response:
The Judge was not comparing "the Apple and Samsung products." There is not and has never been any Apple product in accordance with the registered design. Apple's statement would clearly be taken by ordinary readers and journalists to be a reference to a real Apple product, the iPad. By this statement Apple was fostering the false notion that the case was about the iPad. And that the Samsung product was "not as cool" as the iPad.

Apple wrote:
However, in a case tried in Germany regarding the same patent, the court found that Samsung engaged in unfair competition by copying the iPad design.

The court's response:
That is false in the following ways...MORE
Earlier:
Samsung Exacts Its Revenge on Apple (AAPL)