Judge Orders Apple Inc. (AAPL) to Publish Notice Saying Samsung Didn’t Copy iPad

samsung galaxy tab

In an interesting turn of events in the ongoing legal battle between Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung a U.K court ordered the Cupertino based company to publish notice saying that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad.

AAPL lost a patent lawsuit against Samsung in a London court on July 9 and Judge Colin Birss ordered a ruling which stated that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets don’t infringe Apple’s iPad design. The Judge has now ordered Apple to post the notice on it’s U.K website for a period of six months and also run advertisement in several newspapers and magazines to correct Samsung’s impression in the eyes of the customers.

Bloomberg was first to report on the developing story and has published a statement by Richard Hacon, a lawyer who is representing Apple in the U.K courts.

The order means Apple will have to publish “an advertisement” for Samsung, and is prejudicial to the company, Richard Hacon, a lawyer representing Cupertino, California-based Apple, told the court. “No company likes to refer to a rival on its website.”

The latest development in the international patent lawsuits between the two tech giants comes as an embarrassment to Apple as the company has repeatedly said that Samsung ‘slavishly’ copied it’s iPad and iPhone. Apple is free to appeal the decision and will most likely do so.

Competition in the tablet market is heating up as Android market share is on the rise and Galaxy Tablets finally beginning to see some success. Apple is clearly in the lead with its iPad being a major success in all major international markets however, the ruling by U.K judge could put some pressure on Apple and think of alternate ways to tackle and defend it’s intellectual property rights.

It will be interesting to see how Apple lawyers respond and appeal this decision in the U.K. This ruling could also be seen as first major victory for Samsung. The South Korea-based company had to face injunction against its Galaxy Tab in Australia and the U.S.

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