[Mrluvaluva]

Apple loses Samsung Galaxy Tab fight High Court appeal

Apple has lost its appeal against a High Court ruling that the Samsung Galaxy Tab does not infringe the iPad maker's copyright.

Despite accepting that some parts of the Galaxy Tab are similar to the iPad, the Court of Appeal today upheld the judgement that the device does not infringe its rival's design.

In July, Judge Colin Birss said that the Galaxy Tab and the earlier-released iPad were "very, very similar" when viewed from the front, but there were important differences on the back and in the thinness of the tablets.

Most notably, he said that Samsung's design was "not as cool" as Apple's, because it lacked the "extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design".

After losing its appeal against the ruling, Apple will now have to place prominent adverts explaining that Samsung did not copy the iPad.

A notice must remain on Apple's UK website for six months, and be placed in several UK newspapers and magazines to "correct the damaging impression" that Samsung was a copycat.

Samsung welcomed the ruling. A spokeswoman for the South Korean firm said: "We continue to believe that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners and that the origins of Apple's registered design features can be found in numerous examples of prior art.

"Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited."

Apple has not yet released a statement.

Samsung and Apple, the two largest makers of smartphones and tablets in the world, have been battling it out in courtrooms on multiple continents, with both claiming the other infringes their technology.

A jury in California awarded Apple more than $1bn in damages earlier in the year after ruling that its South Korean rival had copied designs for the iPad and iPhone.

Apple has since been pursuing bans on Samsung devices, although Samsung has been able to fend off many of these actions.

In an interesting twist, Apple is expected to announce a smaller version of its iPad tablet computer at an event in the US next week.

The so-called iPad Mini is expected to come with a 7.8-inch screen, compared to the main iPad's 9.7-inch display. But Samsung has offered a 7-inch model of the Galaxy Tab since November 2010.


DS

Good.