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

Dr. Andy Farnell Blasts Misuse of the Term "AI" to Describe Plagiarism, Plunder, and Misinformation
Dr. Stallman wrote about it back in the early 1980s
A Sign of Progress?
We'll solve war hunger and colonise Mars soon, according to men who never graduated from College
The Slop Delusion: This Morning We Broke Story on Red Hat Layoffs in Two Posts, Google is Already Plagiarising Them With Slop and Getting the Basic Facts Wrong
Google does not have "AI"; it has slop, which means it scrapes other people's work, then imitates it poorly
April 15: Richard Stallman to Speak at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas
Next Wednesday in the afternoon Dr. Stallman will speak in a US college for the second time this year and for the second time in nearly 8 years
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 41 Out of 200: More Misuse of UK-GDPR (for US Citizens), More Copy-Pasting for Garrett and Graveley, Alleging That Publishing Unflattering Information is a 'Privacy' Issue
No wonder his own colleagues thought poorly of him (the junior barrister)
Links 10/04/2026: Pseudoscience and "Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles" and More Attacks on American Journalism
Links for the day
"IBM is Constantly Laying Off People" (Not Just in Red Hat)
IBM as a company is collapsing
Many Layoffs at IBM Red Hat, as the Rumours Said
Red Hat mass layoffs [...] "this was a difficult decision to make."
Microsoft, Drowning in Net Debt, Will Make Many More Cuts
The company is a net negative to society
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 09, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 09, 2026
Gemini Links 10/04/2026: Cycling, Slop, and Software to Keep Photos Organised
Links for the day
Henry Abbott (TrueHoop) Says Microsoft Taken Public by Alvin Bernard "Buzzy" Krongard (in New Interview About Jeffrey Epstein)
He has claimed that the man who took Microsoft public was a banker and also connected to the CIA (former Executive Director)
Quick Roundup of "Linux" Slop
Today we saw a slopfarm again in Google News
Links 09/04/2026: Microsoft Attacking VeraCrypt and "Canada’s New Surveillance Law"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/04/2026: Shopping, LLMs That Ruin the Net, and Moving to GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Links 09/04/2026: TikTok Sets Up Another Outpost in Finland (EU), "Trump Attacks On Public Media Blocked by Judge"
Links for the day
Microsoft's DevDiv Executive Has Quit (Is GitHub on the Chopping Block?)
CodePlex all over again?
Chatbots (or LLMs) Are Killing Us, and We Ought to Talk About It
We need to talk (to each other, not to bots)
Microsoft Also Fires Senior Executives
Microsoft is a very feeble company pretending to be a giant
Microsoft Windows in Ireland: From 90% to Just 16%
When it comes to Ireland's Web usage, not much of it is from Windows anymore
SLAPP Censorship - Part 40 Out of 200: Putting Forth Frivolous Claim Only a Few Days Before Running Out of Time (12 Months)
my response to a frivolous claim from Graveley
IBM Layoffs by Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and More Evidence of Layoffs at HashiCorp After IBM Took Over
Notice how the media does not cover IBM layoffs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 08, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 08, 2026
Gemini Links 09/04/2026: On the Radio, Boogie Notes, Slop in Search Engines and USENET
Links for the day
Countries Where Windows is Measured Below 1%
Windows' monoculture is going away
SLAPP Censorship - Part 39 Out of 200: Recycled Text for Garrett and Graveley (Buy One, Get One Free?)
perhaps thousands of pounds per hour
Microsoft Azure is Now “Perpetually on Life Support”, Even Microsoft Sites Express Concerns
Less than a decade ago Microsoft-connected sites kept saying that AWS was doomed and Microsoft would replace AWS with Azure
IBM's Fedora Project Sees Sharp Increase (Over 25%) in Code of Conduct Complaints, i.e. Censorship Demands
Remember that IBM lawyered up against its own community in an effort to shut down a site critical of it
Malicious Bots
Tackling corruption in the world is never easy
Slopfarms Marginalised, Some Suspend Operations
some people who become lazy and prompt LLMs are just signalling that they throw in the towel
Gemini Links 08/04/2026: "Managing Dotfiles with GNU Stow" and "Observations on Blocking Various Webbots"
Links for the day
Links 08/04/2026: GAFAM "Abandons Multi-Billion Dollar Data Centres in US as Investors Demand Energy, Water Usage"; Artemis II Astronauts Updates
Links for the day
Links 08/04/2026: Dems Call for 25th Amendment Remedy, Bill Epsteingate Summoned in Jeffrey Epstein Investigation
Links for the day
A Lot of Law Firms Are Collapsing
There has been a lot of discussion about this lately
IBM Red Hat Profited From 5+ Weeks of War in Iran
remember that IBM's current CEO comes from a military family (on both sides)
Associated Press Failed Financially, Now It's Offloading What's Left to Slop (How Sites Die 'Cheaply')
LLMs are not intelligent or any form of intelligence, they are just falsely marketed as such
Microsoft Shares Down 35% in 5 Months, Executives Leave Microsoft
Many people leave (or flee) Microsoft because, seeing what goes on insider, they know what's coming
Are Some Obscure or Chinese Operating Systems (Like Huawei's) Taking Over in "Unknown" Clothing?
statCounter still cannot detect many operating systems
SLAPP Censorship - Part 38 Out of 200: Advertisement or £10,000+ Classified Ad in the Form of Court Filing in Another Continent
Graveley fancies himself some world-renown something
Software Freedom is Closely Connected to Privacy
privacy can be a matter of life and death
What Communities Mean and Look Like (If They're Effective and Focused)
Last week we wrote about this in the context of distros and alleged "inclusion"
April 2026 FSF LibreLocal Concludes in Atlanta
Happy Hacking
Gemini Links 08/04/2026: GPG Symmetric Encryption and Slop in USENET
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 07, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 07, 2026