Apple

A British court has given Apple 24 hours to remove a statement regarding Samsung from its website, and 48 hours to post a new one, the BBC reports. (Andy Wong / Associated Press)

By Deborah Netburn

November 1, 2012, 12:29 p.m.

We think the British-court-ordered notice on Apple's website that says Samsung did not copy Apple's patented tablet design is hilarious, but the judge isn't laughing.

A British court has given Apple 24 hours to remove the statement from its website, and 48 hours to post a new one, the BBC reports.

Apple asked for 14 days to write a new statement, but the court refused. 

"I would like to see the head of Apple make an affidavit setting out the technical difficulties," said Judge Robin Jacob, Bloomberg reports. "...This is Apple. They cannot put something on their website?"

The original statement, ordered by the High Court of Justice of England on Oct. 18, was supposed to be a simple one that clarifies the court's finding that the design of three of Samsung's Galaxy Tablet computers does not infringe on Apple's patented design. 

Apple, complied, but with a twist. In the original notice posted on its website, the company lays out the court's findings in the first paragraph, but also includes some additional paragraphs that display a certain...um...feisty attitude.

The statement includes two paragraphs pulled directly from the court's ruling that say that Apple's design is cooler than the Samsung design.

The company then goes on to say that a German court found that Samsung did copy the iPad design. And that a U.S. jury found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple's design.

The original statement concludes:  

So while the U.K. court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad.

"I'm at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this," Jacob said, according to the BBC. "It is a plain breach of the order."

In addition to writing a new notice, the court has ordered Apple to link to the new notice on its homepage. The company must also publish notices with details of the ruling in British newspapers and trade magazines, the BBC reports.

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