Did you ever have to apologize to your brother or sister when you were a kid, and do so with sarcasm, only for your sibling to whine “but he didn’t mean it” or “he stuck his tongue out at me when you weren’t looking.” It seems Apple is up to some similar shenanigans in honoring the UK court order that they post a statement on their webpage, and also in local newspapers and magazines, that Samsung, their rival, did not infringe on the iPad tablet’s registered design.

When Apple lost their case, they took it to appeals court, and lost again. It wasn’t so much an act of punishment or humiliation the judges claim, to have them publicly declare their rivals had done no wrong, for as the judges said “it is not designed to punish, it is not designed to make [you] grovel,” as Bloomberg reported, but it was “to dispel commercial uncertainty.”

Instead of simply posting the link and the ads, Apple put a tiny link on its homepage, and added some words to the expected statement. Apple added four paragraphs, including a quote of His Honour Judge Birss QC, who presided over the case, as calling Apple’s designs “cool,” in contradistinction to Samsung’s.

  

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Apple also included some information about Samsung’s court cases in the US. Such additions and diversions amount to “a plain breach of the order, “as Bloomberg quotes one of the presiding judges as saying.

Sir Robin Jacob has given Apple 48 hours to comply with the order, to put the link on their homepage in 11-point font. When Apple claimed it would require at least 14 days to make the corrective statement, one of the judges said he “cannot believe” that.

Just as with apologizing to one’s siblings, the mature way to go is to just say the words, get it over with, and forget about it, rather than drawing it out like this.