Apple must issue a notice stating that Samsung did not copy its design for the iPad according to the court order in U.K.
The notice has to be posted for six months on its website and published in several newspapers and magazines to save Samsung's image. Bloomberg reports.
Judge Colin Birss said the notice should explain the court's July 9 decision that Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablets do not infringe on Apple's design.
Samsung’s lawyer Kathryn Pickard said at the hearing. That Apple’s blame “caused real commercial harm.”
The order means that Apple will essentially have to run and pay for advertisements for Samsung in the UK, a move that may not be a good idea for business. “No company likes to refer to a rival on its website,” Apple lawyer Richard Hacon told the court.
Birss may have affected Samsung's image a bit himself in his July ruling, when he said consumers are unlikely to be confused because the Samsung tablets are "not as cool," as the iPad.
“[The Galaxy tablets] do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool,” Birss said.
The judge also didn't grant Samsung's request to block Apple from making public statements that the Galaxy infringed Apple's design, saying the company is entitled to its opinion.
The UK lawsuit isn’t the only legal battle Apple is fighting. Similar disputes between Apple and Samsung are still unsettled in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. Also earlier this month, Apple paid a hefty $60 million for the “iPad” name in China.
