Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung will be sitting down this week as part of a court-ordered mediation between the two companies, according to a Reuters report. Back in April, the warring companies were ordered by a federal judge to appear in a court-supervised mediation to attempt to settle their differences before their cases against each other come to trial later this year. Apple claims that Samsung “slavishly copied” the iPhone and iPad when creating its Android Galaxy line of devices. Samsung is counter-claiming that Apple copied some of Samsung’s patents with the recent iPhone and iPad devices.
Cook and Gee-sung will begin talks this morning, and will have their best and brightest lawyers on hand to assist in the process. The judge in the case is hoping that by demanding the chiefs of each company be at the negotiating table, the companies will be more likely to reach some sort of settlement deal, and avoid a costly and probably lengthy legal debate. A top company executive at Samsung said over the weekend that the company is hoping the two can come to some kind of agreement.
“There is still a big gap in the patent war with Apple but we still have several negotiation options including cross-licensing.” – JK Shin, Samsung Mobile Division Chief
Analysts aren’t expecting much to come out of the negotiations. When it comes to patent debates, the decision to settle out of court is a heavy one that won’t be taken lightly even when both CEOs are doing the negotiating. Google’s Larry Page and Oracle’s Larry Ellison sat down last year to discuss the patent infringement suit against Google, a case that has since gone to trial, currently in its sixth week of deliberations. Most are expecting the Apple v. Samsung case to go to trial as well, as the stakes are high in the case with potentially long-term impacts to the company on the losing end.
Two-day mediation talks will take place over the next two days in San Francisco. If the companies are unable to reach a settlement deal, the case is currently set to go to trial at the end of July in San Jose.
[via Reuters]