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Comment by mmariani | Hacker News Reader

> As the judge stated Samsung products lack the simplicity of the iPad.

I think their marketing guys are going to have a feast on this. They could start playing around the lines: Samsung tablets are not as cool or simple as ours. Sorry for taking this too far intend of working on cool stuff for you — our lawyers are design challenged.

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Given that Apple has a history of doing similar things in adverts I can see them at least trying it, whether the Samsung legal team lets them is a different story.

Kind of like how they lost to Microsoft, then had ads (10+ years later) saying "Redmond, get your photocopiers ready." That was pretty distasteful considering the bailout by Microsoft in 1997. Oh well, competition is competition.

I would have no problem with that line if it weren't in Apple's blood to copy copy copy, at least to the same degree if not more than Microsoft. The hypocrisy is really what annoys me.

It's not copy when you improve it. Whenever I use Unity or Win7 I see lots of little details "copied" from OSX.

That was pretty distasteful considering the bailout by Microsoft in 1997

It wasn't a "bailout" it was a legal settlement.

What are you talking about? I'm referring to the investment Microsoft made in 1997 to rescue Apple from bankruptcy, not to mention their contributions to add value to their system. Definitely a bailout.

Edit: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/dayintech_0806/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Canyon_Company

That investment was (in part, along with a cash settlement) the resultion of a dispute over Microsoft using Quicktime code in their Video for Windows product.

Pretty sure Microsoft would have no problem holding their own in court - they had a good track record at that point. Seems like they just leveraged their and Apple's positions to bundle it into the deal.

If it were a "settlement", it would have happened in the court room. Apple surrendered the case just to stay alive.

The simplicity thing is a win for both camps in terms of marketing.

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