Three Court of Appeal judges earlier today ruled that the Samsung did not infringe Apple’s design rights with its Samsung Galaxy Tabs, making the latter to lose its appeal case.
Apple had appealed against the court’s earlier decision, made in July, that stated that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab computers were not too similar to designs registered with the iPad.
In the previous ruling, UK Judge Birss said the two were not similar saying: “They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.”
The judge had also ordered that one notice should remain on Apple’s website for at least six months, and that they should run adverts on various magazines and newspapers. to correct Samsung’s damaged impression.
In the ruling Sir Robin, one of the judges, said: “It is not about whether Samsung copied Apple’s iPad. Infringement of a registered design does not involve any question of whether there was copying: the issue is simply whether the accused design is too close to the registered design according to the tests laid down in the law.”
Samsung has welcomed the ruling and said in a statement: “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.”
Apple declined to comment on the decision. Experts say that Apple can still appeal to the UK Supreme Court, otherwise the ruling applies across the European Union.
This is just one of the many suits that the companies have levelled against each other. However, Apple has already lost many lawsuits against Samsung based on the same tablet designs in Netherlands, Australia and US.
However, Apple won a major suit against Samsung when a US jury recommended that Samsung pays Apple a US$1.05 billion for infringing Apple’s software patents.
