Apple and Samsung chiefs disagree on patent values

By AGENCIES

APPLE and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war in several countries, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in the fast-growing market for mobile devices.

With more than 20 cases ongoing in countries around the world – including the US, Germany, UK and Australia – the two companies are at each other's throats, even while one is the biggest parts buyer from the other.

The trial is scheduled to begin on 30 July in a San Jose federal court in the US.

Cook participated in mediation with Samsung's vice-chairman Choi Gee-sung and mobile chief Shin Jong-Kyun on Monday 16 July in San Francisco to see if the two sides could resolve the dispute, sources have told Reuters.

At issue are some of the key claims that Apple is bringing against Samsung, including whether the South Korean company. "stole" design ideas and infringed patents.

Samsung has responded in the US and elsewhere by asserting that Apple has failed to license its 3G patents – as in a case which began in Australia on Monday.

The judge there suggested that the two sides might be ordered simply to seek mediation, although none of the cases brought by the two against each other worldwide has yet seen successful mediation.

Cook and his team, and the Samsung executives, met as part of the court-directed mediation process to try to head off full litigation. But while a settlement is always possible, it is unlikely to come ahead of the California trial scheduled to start on Monday 30 July.

The Wall Street Journal is calling it "The patent trial of the century" – although those who recall the battle between Oracle and Google earlier this year over the Android mobile operating system might disagree.

There, Oracle initially sought billions in payment for what it claimed were infringements of its software patents; in the end, a jury sent it away essentially empty-handed.

Apple's case is that Samsung's position at the top of the world smartphone market, where it has outdistanced both Apple and Nokia, has come through a strategy of copying the American company.

Samsung has repeatedly argued that Apple's designs are not unique, or novel, and have many precedents.