Apple vs Samsung: Legal Peace Talks Fail

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According to a California district court report Apple and Samsung fail to reach an out-of-court agreement over a fresh round of patent-related disputes, meaning the two companies will soon return to the legal battlefields.

Apple vs SamsungThe report says the the two companies met with a mediator in hopes of an out-of-court agreement on January 2014, with Apple and Samsung holding "at least" 6 and 4 calls respectively with the mediator. However "notwithstanding these efforts, the mediator's settlement proposal to the parties was unsuccessful."

Also mentioned is an 18 February 2014 meeting involving CEO Tim Cook, general counsel Bruce Sewell, chief litigation counsel Noreen Krall and chief IP counsel BJ Watrous on the Apple side and CEO JK Shin, IP centre heads Seung-Ho Ahn and Ken Korea, CFO HK Park and heads of licensing Injung Lee and James Kwak on the Samsung Mobile side.

The litigation builds up on the August 2012 mega-trial, where the California court decided wholly in favour of Apple. Now Apple claims the most recent Samsung devices also infringes on its IP-- and, as The Wall Street Journal notes, since Samsung sales are higher than ever this leads to potentially higher damages payouts.

On January 2014 a California court decided Samsung devices infringe an Apple patent covering word recommendations (autocomplete), and declared invalid a Samsung patent on multimedia synchronisation.

Will 2014 be the year for biggest CE industry legal battles yet? No doubt, since we expect further skirmishes to follow in multiple nations once Apple vs Samsung takes place on 31 March.

Go Status of Apple vs Samsung Settlement Talks Report

Go Apple, Samsung Fail to Settle US Patent Case (WSJ.com)

Go US Court Finds Samsung to Infringe One Apple Patent, Declares One Samsung Patent Invalid (Foss Patents)

Go Apple vs. Samsung: Apple Triumphant