Apple loses UK court appeal ruling in patent scuffle with Samsung

Apple loses UK court appeal ruling in patent scuffle with SamsungIn a Thursday ruling in the Apple-Samsung patent-infringement lawsuit, the UK court of appeal's three-judge panel sided with Samsung, and said that the South Korean company's Galaxy tablet did not infringe upon the design of the Apple iPad.

The recent appeal court verdict upheld a previous ruling by a UK court which had come to the conclusion that the Galaxy line of tablets from Samsung could not be deemed "cool" enough to lead to the consumers' confusion of the devices with the popular iPad.

The verdict by the three appeals court judges in London came after Apple had appealed the July ruling by Judge Colin Birss QC, who had said in his verdict that the Samsung tablets did not violate the design which Apple had registered for the iPad.

Judge Birss had clearly stated in his ruling that the Galaxy tablets "do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design"; and had also added that the Samsung devices were "not as cool" as the iPad.

Upholding that ruling on Thursday, the appeal court judges also agreed that there were some distinct differences in the appearance as well as design of the Apple and Samsung tablets. The judges further said that the contrasts in the devices from the two companies were palpable enough to make the "informed user" realize that the devices were different.