If a judge says your product is "cool", it is. For ever. With a judicial stamp on. Which must instantly confer hip outsider status upon its "not cool enough for a judge" rival.

Their official reaction was predictable enough: "Samsung welcomes today's ruling by the High Court, which affirms Samsung's commitment to protect its own intellectual property rights…" etc.

But I'm willing to bet that on Monday in the patents court of the chancery division of the UK High Court, there was an unofficial reaction. "Wait a minute, my lord - NOT AS COOL?! C'MON!"

Followed by a practical barrister edging their client out the door saying, "Just keep walking buddy, we won."

It was a day where another London courtroom saw such a blizzard of other c-words, stockpiles of asterisks were running dangerously low. Meanwhile in Apple v Samsung UK, despite being only point 190 of a 191-point judgement, Judge Peter Birss' assertion that Samsung's tablet PC was "not as cool" as Apple's could be a watershed in jurisprudence.
For decades, mankind has debated the nature of cool and now we have an official ruling