Apple ordered to give apology another shot

Apple was forced by a British court to revise and repost its official apology over a design patent lawsuit against its archrival Samsung Electronics on its U.K. home page (www.apple.com/uk) Saturday morning Greenwich Mean Time.

“On 25 October 2012, Apple Inc. published a statement on its UK Web site in relation to Samsung’s Galaxy tablet computers. That statement was inaccurate and did not comply with the order of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The correct statement is at Samsung/Apple UK judgment,” the posting reads. It can be viewed by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

On July 9, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet PCs - Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 - did not violate Apple’s iPad design patent. The court ordered the iPhone maker to publicize the decision on its home page as well as in newspapers and magazines.

Apple did apologize on its home page. But in an unexpected twist to the ongoing legal battle between the two tech titans, judges at the Court of Appeal in London claimed it had not complied with their order.

This was based on the logic that Apple’s statement included one judge’s claim that Samsung’s tablet PCs are not as cool as those Apple’s, and also mentioned that courts in other countries such as Germany and the United States ruled that Samsung had copied Apple’s designs.

On Thursday, the senior judges ordered Apple to delete the posting by 11 a.m. Friday and correct it within 24 hours.

“We are just amazed that you cannot put the right notice up at the same time as you take the other one down,” Lord Justice Longmore was quoted as saying by a handful of British media. Another judge, Robin Jacob, said, “I would like to see the head of Apple [Tim Cook] make an affidavit about why that is such a technical difficulty for the Apple company.”

Separately, Samsung Electronics said yesterday its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone, a strong rival to Apple’s iPhone 5, has seen global sales top 30 million units five months after its debut. In the first 100 days, accumulated sales surpassed 10 million.

“The Galaxy S3 continues to be a runaway favorite with customers around the world. Meeting this sales milestone in five months sets another record for Samsung, and we are extremely proud and yet motivated to continue to provide our customers with products that they love,” said J.K. Shin, president of Samsung Electronics’ IT & mobile communications division.

The tech king also said on Friday that the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 sold over three million units since its release in September. Its screen is 0.7 inch larger than the S3 and it comes with a stylus for taking notes and drawing. Its predecessor, the first Galaxy Note, sold about two million units within three months of its debut last November.

By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]