Apple ordered to publish announcements that Samsung did not copy iPad design

Apple has been ordered by a UK judge to publish announcements that Samsung did not copy the design of its iPad, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

It said the judge said one notice should remain on Apple’s website for at least six months, while other adverts should be placed in various newspapers and magazines.

It follows Apple’s failed attempt to block sales of the South Korean firm’s Galaxy Tab tablets.

Apple and Samsung have not commented.

The order did not feature in Judge Colin Birss’s judgement published on 9 July, but Bloomberg said the matter was discussed in the court following the verdict.

It said the notices must make reference to the court case and should be designed to “correct the damaging impression” that Samsung’s tablets had aped the look of Apple’s products.

“They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” said the judge at the time.

“They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different.”

However, the judge refused Samsung’s request that Apple be forbidden from restating its claim that its design rights had been infringed.

Judge Birss said that the US firm was “entitled” to hold the opinion that his judgement was wrong.