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Apple lacked integrity in Samsung dispute, judge says

Apple's non apology to Samsung has raised the ire of a senior judge, and he doesn't mince his words.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

A senior judge has -- to use legal speak for a second -- torn Apple a new one over how it handled a dispute with Samsung. "Which dispute?" you might be wondering. This is the apology Apple was ordered to give by a UK court, saying Samsung didn't copy the iPad's design. Apple half-heartedly said sorry, before being made to say it like it meant it.

In its first attempt at apologising, Apple referenced court cases abroad where Samsung's Galaxy Tab was found to have copied the iPad. Sir Robin Jacob criticised this as "false and misleading", the Guardian reports.

Jacob said: "There is a false innuendo that the UK court's decision is at odds with decisions in other countries whereas that is simply not true." 

He also said Apple showed a "lack of integrity" when it claimed it would need two weeks to take down the non apology and post the new one.

"I found that very disturbing: that it was beyond the technical abilities of Apple to make the minor changes required to its own website in less time beggared belief. In the end we gave it 48 hours which in itself I consider generous.

"I hope that the lack of integrity involved in this incident is entirely atypical of Apple." 

Apple was forced to apologise by UK courts after Samsung was found innocent in a patent infringement case. It did so, but not to the court's satisfaction. Apple corrected the apology, but then it was noticed the revised version was -- while admittedly in a larger font than the previous version -- hidden down the bottom of the page. Because of code Apple used to resize images, you had to scroll down to find it.

Would you say Apple showed a "lack of integrity"? And is it "entirely atypical" of the company? Or is this just how it rolls? Let me know what you reckon below in the comments, or on our Facebook page.