Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung have decided to take a middle route in their patent brawl and thereby both companies have agreed to attend a mediation session dated on February 19 before pulling each other to court in March over the smartphones patent, says a report from Reuters.
Both companies fighting costly patent battles worldwide
Apple CEO, Tim Cook and his Samsung counterpart, Oh-Hyun Kwon will be present in the session with in-house lawyers only as mentioned in the Wednesday court filing. It was also mentioned in the filing that the legal teams of both the companies met on January 6 to discuss the settlement opportunities.
Neither, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) nor Samsung was available for immediate comment. Apple and Samsung continuously fight legal battles against each other, all over the world, to retain their dominant position over each other. Apple sued Samsung claiming that the Korean electronics giant breached its patent, and the trial regarding the same will begin in March.
Over the past two years, both companies dragged each other into court twice in San Jose, California federal court and Juries gave their decision in favour of Apple ordering Samsung to pay approximately $930 million.
Back in December, the iPhone maker said that it made a payment of approximately $60 million to wage patent litigation against Samsung.
Previous efforts, not much success
Towards the end of December 2013, The Korean Times reported that the two companies have resumed their settlement talks related to their patent infringement dispute. Also, in the report, it was mentioned that the CEO of Samsung might visit United States to have a personal meeting Cook.
Cook held a meeting with former Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung, in 2012, over continuing settlement related discussion, but could not succeed as Samsung denied accepting the Apple’s patent royalties demand. Additionally, both companies met last year in Seoul, Korea but the discussion ended in a failure.
Last month Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), demanded a ban over 20 smartphones and tablets that according to the Jury infringed Apple patent. Adam Yates, a spokesman for the South Korea-based Samsung, turned down from commenting on the mediation. Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, also declined to comment on it.
