News: Apple Must Post Notice That Samsung Didn’t Copy

While all these patent fights are getting ridiculous, a British judge ruled against Apple and came up with something a bit ridiculous, as reported by Kit Chellel of Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was ordered by a judge to publish a notice on its U.K. website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t copy designs for the iPad.

The notice should outline the July 9 London court decision that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets don’t infringe Apple’s registered designs, Judge Colin Birss said yesterday. It should be posted on Apple’s U.K. home page for six months and published in newspapers and magazines to correct any impression the South Korea-based company was copying Apple’s product, Birss said.

Apple ought to include the other comments from Birss in its notices, as joked about in The Joy of Tech:

Birss said in his July 9 ruling that Samsung’s tablets were unlikely to be confused with the iPad because they are “not as cool.” He declined yesterday to grant Samsung’s bid for an injunction blocking Apple from making public statements that the Galaxy infringed its design rights.

Obviously, this still has a ways to go in regards to appeals and other pending lawsuits, but this is a slightly odd turn of events.