Leading Lawyer comments on Apple losing Samsung appeal

Kim Walker, Partner at leading law firm Thomas Eggar, comments on Apple losing its UK court appeal relating to Samsung copying its iPad:

“Apple has lost its appeal against the UK ruling that Samsung did not copy the design of its iPad. This is an endorsement of Samsung’s tablet design, which while arguably not as cool as Apple’s iPad, still has originality in its design. However much Apple may have argued otherwise the Court was convinced of the originality of the Samsung device.

“According to the Court of Appeal judgment, Samsung’s device was ‘not as cool’ because it lacked the ‘extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design’. The focus has been on the lack of infringing features once it was determined that Apple could not claim protection based on a rectangular design alone. The Judge’s comments also underline that original work gets protection and that intellectual property rights are created as a result.

“Apple has also been ordered to place a notice on its website for at least six months to “correct the damaging impression” that Samsung was a copycat and run adverts carrying the same message. Perhaps this will go some way to compensating Samsung for being wrongly labelled as an imitator of Apple.

“So it appears that you don’t have to be cool to be original when it comes to intellectual property rights, you just have to be different!”

Kitguru says: The legal battle between those two companies is long from over we think.

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