Apple has been battling Samsung for some time in the mobile space in the UK over similarities between the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple iPad which last week resulted in the Judge presiding over the case to rule in favour of Samsung, demanding that Apple run new iPad advertisements, clearly stating that their product is different from Samsung’s Android slate.
This news was no doubt a hefty to blow to both Apple’s ego and legal team and the company has since won its appeal against the ruling. According to SlashGear, Judge Birss will be handling the appeal hearings and was also present for the original case which resulted in this unusual ‘punishment’ to befall Californian tech giant. The company lost the original case as a result, in part, of rather nondescript sketches of their iPad submitted to the court (below), which didn’t offer enough detail in comparison to any tablet on the market, let alone a specific rival make and model.
Initially Apple would have been required to run (and pay for) a UK advertising campaign, designed to highlight the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Tab does not infringe on the company’s iPad. Ads would have been seen cropping up not only on the company’s website, but leading UK publications such as T3, The Daily Mail, The Guardian Mobile magazine and Financial Times.
Thankfully for AppleInsider are now saying that the company’s legal team were able to convince the courts that the ruling working against them would have resulted in an Apple-sponsored advertisement of a competitor’s device. As such Samsung fans won’t be able to gloat over embarrassing iPad marketing in the UK, but that doesn’t mean that other legal altercations elsewhere in the world couldn’t result in a different outcome.
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