Apple ordered to run ads for arch rival Samsung
Apple has been handed the galling punishment of being forced to run a series of advertisements for its arch rival, Samsung.
The fashionable purveyor of electronics has been at loggerheads with its Korean upstart rival in courtrooms around the world but has come off second best at the hands of a UK judge.
Adopting a novel punishment the judge opted to eschew the traditional fine or slap on the wrist for something much harder to swallow, publication of a statement on the Apple’s website avowing that Samsung ‘did not copy the iPad’ for a whole six months.
If that weren’t bad enough the message must also be conveyed in a series of newspapers and magazines to ‘correct the damaging impression’ that Samsung copy and pasted their design.
Ironically Apple had actually initiated the action in the hope of blocking sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets.
Apple will however be allowed to continue to state the opinion that its design rights have been infringed.
Speaking about the design of these rival devices the judge had said: "They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design," said the judge at the time.
"They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different."