Ouch!

I am not sure that I want to win an IP case with this verdict:

Samsung won a victory over Apple in the UK high court as part of its world-spanning battle over intellectual property and design after a judge ruled the design of its Galaxy Tab isn't cool enough to be confused with an iPad.

The ruling, by Judge Colin Birss, means that Apple cannot stop the import or sale of the Galaxy Tab 10 under claims it has made that the designs are too close to those of the iPad.

Instead, Judge Birss ruled that Samsung's designs did not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design: "They are not as cool."

He noted distinctions such as the thickness and details on the backs of the devices in his ruling. "The informed user's overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following," he said in his ruling. "From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different."

This is a definition of a "win" of which I was previously unaware.

H/t Kevin Drum