Apple and Samsung have Reportedly Resumed Working Level Discussions to End their Patent War
We posted a report on Friday titled "The First Crack at Peace: Apple & Google Settle Long Standing Lawsuit." A four year battle had ended with both companies wanting to focus their efforts on patent reform to curb patent troll lawsuits. The press release was clear however, that the ongoing litigation with Samsung wasn't part of the deal. Today news out of Korea is that Samsung and Apple have recently agreed to begin talks to settle patent disputes out of court, according to people directly involved with the matter. Report updated May 20, 2014.
Sources close to the matter have stated that "Samsung has recently resumed working-level discussions with Apple and the key issue is how to dismiss all lawsuits. More time will be needed to fix terms of details such as royalty payments in return for using patents owned by each before reaching a full agreement."
Google has been consistent in helping Samsung over legal counseling, while promising to pay monetary damages. So with Google making peace with Apple, there may have been a signal to Samsung to end the patent infringement cases. Some think it could come to a close by the end of the summer and that it wouldn't necessarily have to agree on a comprehensive cross-license.
In the second-round of the Samsung-Apple dispute in the San Jose, California court presided over by Judge Lucy H. Koh, Apple had been seeking more than $2 billion in damages, but received $119.6 million.
Whether this latest round of talks between Apple and Samsung will actually bear fruit is debatable at this point in time. With Google having committed to paying all monetary damages hasn't helped matters and had probably emboldened Samsung to keep the fight alive. So with peace between Google and Apple arriving last week, perhaps that sent a signal up the chain to Samsung to end the disputes once and for all. Will we see an agreement this year? Only time will tell.
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May 20, 2014: Korean Times reports New Developments show that both sides are still at great odds with each other; Bloomberg reports that "Apple, Samsung Blame Each Other for Lack of Settlement."
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