The heads of U.S. technology giant Apple, Inc. (AAPL: Quote) and South Korean conglomerate Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SSNLF.PK, SSNNF.PK) are currently engaged in talks at a U.S. federal court to reach an out of court settlement on the various patent lawsuits against each other.
Teams led by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung have begun their two-day court directed discussions on Monday to reach a settlement, after the CEO's were summoned and directed by federal court judge Lucy Koh back in April. The talks are being mediated by a magistrate judge.
Though Cook has always maintained that he dislikes legal action and prefers to settle disputes rather than sue, Samsung has reportedly mentioned that they are far from an agreement and sees cross-licensing as a neat settlement option.
Apple and Samsung are locked in various patent infringement battles in at least 12 courts, nine countries, and four continents involving smartphone and tablet patents since April 2011. They have accused each other of copying design and patent infringements primarily in Australia, Britain, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
Cupertino, California-based Apple has alleged that Samsung copied designs and features in its iphone Smartphones and ipad tablets, while Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung has claimed that Apple uses a number of its patents without a license. Apple has continued to seek injunctions and import bans.
In the past one year and more, Apple and Samsung have sued and countersued each other numerous times, with Apple mostly having an upper hand. Samsung's countersuits have mostly failed to win injunctions. However, Samsung has always worked around the lawsuits to continue selling their Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets across the world, with the lawsuits not having any effect on their shipments.
Since the patent war began in April 2011, Samsung's smartphone shipments have increased four-fold, and has also reportedly exceeded Apple's iPhone sales by a large margin in the first quarter. Samsung has also reportedly narrowly beaten Apple in smartphone shipments in 2011.
With the smartphone and tablet PC segments being among the fastest-growing markets in the technology sector, companies are using patent lawsuits as a tool to ward off competition and to garner higher market share.
AAPL closed Monday's regular trading session at $561.28, up $30.90 or 5.83% on a volume of 22.54 million shares, while SSNLF.PK closed flat at $1,003.02.
Samsung shares rose 23,000 won or 1.90 percent in Tuesday's regular trading session and is currently trading at 1,232,000 won on the Kospi on a volume of 0.27 million shares.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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