Apple (AAPL 2.15%) is once again trying to thwart the spirit of a U.K. patent court ruling that it must state on its U.K. website that Samsung's Galaxy Tabs do not mimic Apple's iPad design.
Last week, those slippery eels at Cupertino posted a statement that twisted the British court's intent by posting an ode to the iPad's coolness, and a pointed reminder that Samsung has been on the losing end of patent lawsuits in several other jurisdictions.
The British judges were quite dismayed at Apple's lack of contriteness -- but not speechless:
"I'm at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this," said Judge Robin Jacob. "This is a plain breach of the order."
I wonder, then, what the judicial response will be when the court gets wind how Apple is still trying to game the ruling.
This time there is a text link at the bottom the Apple U.K. website, which does, this time, lead to a page holding a straightforward statement absolving Samsung of its alleged wrongdoing.
However -- as was pointed out by cellular-news -- Apple put a bit of JavaScript code on the page which, no matter how large your monitor is, will keep increasing the size of the page to keep the text-link hidden until the viewer scrolls down.
Go ahead, try it yourself.
Apple is a company that has always pushed the envelope technically, but how far out is it willing to go pushing the patience of the British legal system?
Yes, the stakes are high as Google's (GOOG 0.42%) Android-powered phones keep getting a bigger and bigger slice of the global smartphone market. And Samsung is pushing out the lion's share of Android phones.
But Apple is not acting like what is perhaps the most looked-up-to consumer electronics company on the planet. It is acting more like a willful adolescent when it pulls stunts like the above.
