UK Judge Rules Samsung Tablets 'Not as Cool' as iPad

With the avalanche of patent lawsuits involving Apple, we try to restrict our coverage to the most significant developments such as issued injunctions, final settlements, and monetary awards.

But while a UK judge's ruling today that Samsung's Galaxy Tab products do not infringe upon Apple's iPad design merely maintains the status quo from a competitive perspective in one of the many ongoing cases between the two companies, what is sure to spark discussion is the judge's assessment that the Galaxy tablets are simply "not as cool" as the iPad. Bloomberg reports:

The Galaxy tablet doesn’t infringe Apple’s registered design, Judge Colin Birss said in a ruling today in London. He said that consumers weren’t likely to get the two tablet computers mixed up.

The Galaxy tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” Birss said. “They are not as cool.”

More specifically, Birss ruled that the Galaxy tablets' thinner profiles and "unusual details" on the back of the devices made them different enough from the iPad that they were not too similar to Apple's design.

Apple has 21 days in which to appeal the ruling.