Bonum Certa Men Certa

Apple Must Apologise to Judges, Not Just to Samsung and Android

Apple's tribalism backfires

Football



Summary: Apple's Hubris and reluctance to comply with court orders is costing it not just in bad publicity but also a more severe and stern order

Apple is a nasty company based on its behaviour in recent years. It's not mere emotion that makes one call Apple "nasty"; this has become a widely-held perception, sometimes about Apple's most passionate customers too. Watch Apple getting criticised for its aggressive nature again:



Apple is a litigious company, most famously for its multi-billion dollar patent crusade against Samsung. The Cupertino company has a more quixotic legal battle going on against its competitors, however, that has also become a bit of a war against the English language. Since last year, Apple lawyers have been arguing that "App Store" is a trademarked phrase, and it has the right to stop others from using similar phrases. That includes Amazon, which was sued by Apple in March 2011, shortly after it opened the Amazon Appstore for Android.

Now, some of those issues are finally coming to a head in public. At a hearing today in an Oakland federal court, it became clear that while Apple may have a lot of fury and passion behind this lawsuit, it has run into trouble in the form of a very skeptical judge. US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton showed great doubt that Apple will be able to prove that consumers were confused or deceived by Amazon's use of the word "Appstore." At this point, it's somewhat remarkable that the company hasn't dropped this suit, since Hamilton indicated a year ago that she was unimpressed by Apple's arguments and denied a preliminary injunction.



Good.

Apple's arrogant marketing (including the "R and D" nonsense) is not impressing those who see innovators fleeing or getting fired. To quote this one report, "[w]hen Apple forced its mobile software leader Scott Forstall out of the company, it pushed out the most prolific inventor at the company, as measured by recent patent filings.

"Forstall's name is on 166 pending patent applications. That's more than anyone at the company, according to data from investment bank MDB Capital."

Those patents have been used against companies like Samsung, usually in vain. Apple is getting told off by judges who accuse the company of breach of order. To quote: "Apple tried to argue that it would take 14 days to post an updated notice on its website, but the request was shot down. In fact, Judge Jacob made it clear that Apple's actions are beginning to make him testy."

Mr. Pogson says that "Apple Needs to Learn Humility" and in a post by Mike Masnick we learn about the background:

Last week we noted that Apple had put up a rather petulant non-apology apology in response to the UK court order requiring it to advertise to the world that Samsung didn't copy Apple in making its devices. Many people wondered how the court would react to Apple's attempt... and the answer is that the court is not pleased (and is further displeased by Apple's claim that it needs two weeks to come up with something better)...


Pamela Jones says that Apple must go further than before:

There are consequences now that are worse than before. Apple tried to argue that they followed the letter of the law in the original notice, as does Patently Apple. But there is something called the spirit of the law too, and if you follow one and thumb your nose at the other, things can go wrong, because people notice. Judges are not stupid. Not that I believe what Apple did obeyed the letter of the law either. Nor did the judge in the UK.

It's never all right to show disrespect to a court of law, and lawyers above all others should take the lead in demonstrating that respect. The rule of law actually depends on it, which is another way of saying that civilization itself depends on it. Otherwise, it's back to pistols at dawn, or worse.


We wrote about the fake apology several times before [1, 2, 3]. Here is the best report we found in the sense that it's not shy to slam Apple:

Apple Has To Readmit That Samsung Did Not Copy iPad Design: Reprimanded By Court



[...]

Judge Jacob said, "I’m at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this. That is a plain breach of the order."

Apple's arrogance doesn't end here. The company requested 14 days to make the changes. Wow. Why would a company need 14 days to make changes to it's own site? Typical Apple.

Judge Jacob did not buy this and rejected the request stating, "I just can’t believe the instructions you’ve been given. This is Apple. They cannot put something on their website?"


Here is the Apple-friendly BBC:

Apple has 48 hours to re-write a statement on its website relating to its design rights dispute with Samsung, UK judges have ruled.

[...]

Lord Justice Longmore told Mr Beloff: "We are just amazed that you cannot put the right notice up at the same time as you take the other one down."

Sir Robin Jacob added: "I would like to see the head of Apple [Tim Cook] make an affidavit about why that is such a technical difficulty for the Apple company."


Now, that would be entertaining. Apple got itself deeper in the PR blunder. Its arrogance sure works against its intentions and brings no benefit.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Real Security Elusive, Microsoft Layoffs to Coincide With Certificate Apocalypse
July 1
2026 is a Year of Strikes at the European Patent Office (EPO)
As it stands at the moment, to many people the EPO represents crime, not law
Only 1.5% Oppose the European Patent Office's (EPO) Strikes and Other Industrial Actions Until 2027
Among those polled/surveyed (in a ballot)
 
European Patent Office's (EPO) Strikes "at a Scale not Seen Since Battistelli", European Patent Grants Down by Over 25% in Past 3 Months
The actions are effective
Links 20/06/2026: Microsoft's "Year of Shame" and "Feed the Writers"
Links for the day
Web Browsers Are Technically Bloatware (No Matter What Runs in Them)
Don't make it a society that shames people into using a Web browser where none should be needed
Fedora Has Changed a Lot Since I Last Used It (IBM Dominates Almost Everything, IBM Agenda Displaces Community Goals)
"It is effectively 100% run by Red Hat/IBM employed people... even when they are community-elected representatives."
Andy (Cyber Show) on His Teacher Who "Squeezed Every Last Drop Out of Life, With Gratitude, Humility, Generosity and Mettle"
Some call them "eccentric" and are dismissive about what they have to offer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 19, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, June 19, 2026
Gopher/Gemini Links 20/06/2026: Slop With Tcl/Tk and Nokia 770 Perishes
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 111 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley (the Latter Arrested for Strangling Women) Keep Ousting Their Collaboration in Litigation, Lawfare in a Foreign Continent
it's not law, it's just warfare disguised as "law"
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Lobbying in Lisbon...
reappointment campaign lobbying has not been restricted to the "home front" in Portugal
Slop Making Its Way Into Terms Where It Does Not Belong
Hopefully by year's end Google News can successfully cull (and deprive of traffic) almost all slopfarms
Links 19/06/2026: Microsoft Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures in Europe, "World Cup of Internet Resilience"
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2026: Salesforce Data Thefts and GAFAM's Conspiracy Theories That Data Center Opposition is a Foreign Plot
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2026: The Retweeting Class and Data Centres as National Security Risk
Links for the day
Don't Attack the Wives (or Spouses) of Pundits/Activists/Journalists
We will be writing several series about this in the future
Society Will Only Improve Owing to People Who Push Boundaries
Push boundaries with ideas and facts, not with forbidden language
Internet Relay Chat (Shorthand IRC) is Still Growing
Contrariwise, social control media is waning
The Register MS Published a New Page With "AI" 21 Times in It. It Was Paid SPAM.
The former editor of the The Register MS admitted to me (directly) that he knew all this "AI" stuff was stupid hype
Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Associates Dependence on a Ponzi Scheme With "the Future"
Those ludicrous ads (disguised as rankings) from WSJ deserve scorn and ridicule
The XBox Story is Still Fast-Developing, the Layoffs Are Confirmed to be Happening Already (Mid-June), Just Not "Officially"
Workers have Microsoft have long braced for what is happening this summer and will accelerate further in two weeks' time
Fake News From Rupert Murdoch's WSJ Could Not Keep IBM From Sinking
"2026 Best Companies for the Future"?
To GNU, AV2 Adoption May be a Year If Not Years Away
The leap between versions means that there is fertile ground for incompatibilities
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 18, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 18, 2026
Gemini Links 19/06/2026: "Born and Raised by the Internet", Fifteen Years in Gopher
Links for the day
Links 18/06/2026: Clown Computing Has Harmful Sound, Facebook "Must Face the Music (Infringement Litigation)"
Links for the day
Digital Sovereignty Discussed in the United Kingdom (UK)
Digital Sovereignty would be nice, but let's remember what contributes to it
IBM Adds Only More IBM Staff to the Fedora Council, They Like LLM Slop for Posting 'Articles'
It's like Canonical with Ubuntu, only worse
IBM Common Stock Down to About $250, It Was at $330 Just 17 Days Ago
Happy birthday IBM!
Microsoft's CEO Openly Admits XBox is Not Sustainable and Microsoft is Beginning to Admit Slop Isn't Working and Is Not Not Sustainable Either
Expect Microsoft cancellations next month (or later this month) to impact far more than XBox and some studios
EPO and Disabilities: Payments Allegedly Disabled
But people who do cocaine can claim paid "sick leave" (over 100,000 euros for no work at all) if the President sleeps with them
SLAPP Censorship - Part 110 Out of 200: Anti-SLAPP Reform Formally Advanced in the United Kingdom (UK) the Same Week the Serial Strangler From Microsoft (US) Does Forum-Shopping in the UK
The only language they understand is money. They don't understand privacy.
Links 18/06/2026: UK Social Media Ban for Minors, Finland Lifts a Nuclear Weapons Ban
Links for the day
'Article' With "AI" 27 Times in the Page, It's "Partner Content" (Paid Spam) as Usual at The Register MS
We deem this a timely reminder that a lot of the hype around slop is paid-for lies
Microsoft Layoffs Have Reportedly Already Started at ZeniMax
The overall scale is unknown
Cyber Show: "Our independence remains intact and we're set to continue relentlessly probing the world of digital technology with hard questions"
As one should
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Leveraging the Lusitanian Connection
Mendonça no longer functions as an independent agent but rather as a fig-leaf for a mafia-like entity that prizes obedience over integrity and self-preservation over truth
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 17, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 17, 2026