Advertising: Judge Tells Apple to Advertise Legal Win for Samsung

A JUDGE in Britain has ordered Apple to post notices on its Web site and to take out newspaper ads declaring that Samsung did not infringe Apple design patents.

The unusual decision was the latest twist in a global legal battle over patents between the two rivals in the smartphone and tablet businesses. It followed a Pyrrhic victory last week for Samsung, when the same judge, Colin Birss, rejected an Apple claim over tablet designs, saying consumers were unlikely to confuse Samsung’s Galaxy tablets with Apple’s iPad because the Galaxys were “not as cool.”

•

The phrasing raised eyebrows.

“It isn’t a bad thing if judges aren’t always buttoned up,” said Florian Müller, a consultant in Augsburg, Germany, who blogs about patent issues. “But the ‘not as cool’ thing is such a value judgment.”

In the latest order, issued on Tuesday, Judge Birss told Apple to post a notice on its British Web site for six months to tell visitors Samsung did not violate its design patent. According to Bloomberg News, which said it had obtained a copy of the order from Samsung’s lawyers, the order requires Apple to take out advertisements to a similar effect in The Financial Times, The Daily Mail and several other British publications.

In a statement, Samsung said, “Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.”

Apple has said it will appeal the first decision. An Apple spokesman, Alan Hely, declined to comment on the latest one.

While largely siding with Samsung, Judge Birss nonetheless turned down a request by Samsung for an injunction to bar Apple from saying that Samsung had infringed patents.

Britain is just one of many fronts on which Apple and Samsung are fighting over a range of technical and design patents. In the United States, Apple has secured preliminary injunctions blocking Samsung from selling several of its devices. A jury trial is set to begin July 30 in San Jose, Calif.

•

The companies have filed other claims and counterclaims against each other in countries including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea.

Apple said Samsung smartphones and tablets look, feel and operate too much like its iPhones and iPads, but Judge Birss disagreed. Samsung’s Galaxys, he said, are thinner than the iPad and “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” according to Bloomberg.

Mr. Müller said, “It was probably the nicest way that Apple could have lost.”