Apple publishes new Samsung statement – but has it played another trick?

An altered version of Apple’s Samsung lawsuit acknowledgement has been published on the company’s website.

On October 18th Apple was ordered by the UK courts to publish an acknowledgement of the court’s ruling that Samsung was not guilty of the patent breaches Apple had accused it of.

A statement was published on October 26th but just days later the courts were back on Apple’s case again, demanding amendments to its statement that it described as a plain breach” of its order.

Apple’s fresh statement is now live and reads:

On 9 July 2012 the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Samsung Electronic (UK) Limited’s Galaxy Tablet Computers, namely the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 do not infringe Apple’s Community registered design No. 0000181607–0001. A copy of the full judgment of the High Court is available [here]

That Judgment has effect throughout the European Union and was upheld by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales on 18 October 2012. A copy of the Court of Appeal’s judgment is available [here]. There is no injunction in respect of the Community registered design in force anywhere in Europe.

However, PocketGamer reports that Reddit users have discovered a cheeky bit of code that has been added to Apple’s homepage. This effectively ensures that the link to the disclaimer is by default hidden beyond the fold at the bottom of the screen, regardless of a user’s screen resolution.

This way Apple complies with the court’s demands but still hides the text.