As noted in many locations, including IPcopy here, the apology that Apple was required to place on their website following the recent court decisions in the High Court and Court of Appeal relating to the registered Community Design No. 000181607-0001 left something to be desired.

Sammy complained about the apology to the court and yesterday the Court of Appeal judges, Kitchen LJ, Longmore LJ and Jacob, re-convened and essentially made Apple wolf down a scorching hot portion of unsweetened humble pie (tart apple flavour).

The judges weren’t happy with the additional material Apple had added to the apology and additionally pointed out some errors in the extra paragraphs (e.g. the reference to “patent” in the final paragraph of the original “apology” was incorrect as there was no patent in issue in these proceedings – as also pointed out in the @KeltieLLP twitter feed here).

Apple have been ordered to take down the offending apology within 24 hours (already done) and post a revised apology within 48 hours of the hearing on Thursday.

One wonders what the revised apology will look like. Part of me can’t help thinking that Apple may post the apology way down their home page so that it’s not visible when you land on the page (a “below the fold” apology). Or perhaps they will post the apology in the whitespace in white font. Or maybe both.

UPDATE: the new home page is now up and running (Saturday 3 November @ 9am). On my laptop the statement on the front page appears off screen at the bottom of the display. The linked page now only contains two paragraphs as required by the court order.

UPDATE 2: according to some news sites Apple has actually added some code that means the statement will only appear if you scroll!