When we last heard from Apple in regard to its British patent lawsuit against Samsung, the company had posted a hilariously passive-aggressive notice on its website to comply with a judge’s order that it publicly acknowledge it had lost the case. The notice admitted that the U.K. high court had ruled Samsung’s Galaxy tablets non-infringing on the iPad—then went on to explain that this was only because Samsung’s devices were “not as cool.” At the end, it noted that “other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple’s far more popular iPad.” The full notice is here.
The judges, it seems, were not impressed. The Guardian reports today that the U.K. court of appeal has reprimanded Apple for its failure to post a straightforward statement complying with the order. The court has now ordered Apple to correct the statement, leaving out the parts about the iPad’s coolness and rulings from other countries that have gone in Apple’s favor. The judges were also displeased with the tiny link to the statement that Apple had placed at the bottom of its homepage, and ordered that the new link be published in at least 11-point font.
But when they ordered Apple to make the changes within 48 hours, The Guardian reports, the company’s lawyers replied that it would take at least 14 days to post the new notice—a claim that one judge said he “cannot believe.”
