UK Court Orders Apple To Rewrite Its Samsung Statement

Last week, Apple published a statement on its Web site saying that Samsung did not copy the iPad. The statement was ordered by a UK court after Apple lost its patent battle against Samsung. Now the courts are saying that Apple’s statement isn’t good enough.

Bloomberg reports that the UK Court of Appeals has told Apple that its statement is “non-compliant” with the original order. Now the judges are telling the company to put a simpler statement on its page within 48 hours. The order also says that Apple can not hide the statement in a tiny link at the bottom of its store page.

Apple is arguing that posting an updated statement would take the company up to 14 days. One of the judges, Jacob Robin, expressed disbelief at Apple’s request for 14 days to amend the statement. He said that he would “like to see the head of Apple make an affidavit setting out the technical difficulties” in regards to updating a statement on the company’s Web site. In the end, the court rejected Apple’s request for extension.

Now Apple has 48 hours to remove the four paragraphs that detail the court cases that Apple has won against Samsung. The UK court says that Apple’s statements makes it appear that the UK justice system “is out of step with other courts” when the reality is that Apple has lost a number of its court battles around the world.

As of now, the original statement is still present on Apple’s Web site. The company must pull the original statement within 24 hours. We’ll bring you the updated statement when and if it’s made available. One of Apple’s lawyers, Michael Beloff, is not very happy with the ruling as he told the court that the statement “is not designed to punish” or “make us grovel.” It’s obvious the company is going to fight this.