I can understand that a company, here Apple, will try by lawyers and other means to silence things but in the long run this is really bad and damaging to the im

I can understand that a company, here Apple, will try by lawyers and other means to silence things but in the long run this is really bad and damaging to the image of a company. I wonder why they didn't choose to just handle the matter gracefully? Would have avoided bad press, or am I missing something here?