Apple and Samsung tell the Court: We can't reach a settlement agreement
Largely confirming what we already knew, Apple and Samsung issued a joint filing last week detailing their efforts to hammer out a settlement agreement ahead of their upcoming patent trial.
According to the filing, Tim Cook, along with three members from Apple's in-house counsel, met with Samsung mobile head JK Shin and five members from Samsung's legal and licensing team. The filing reveals that the parties, together with a mediator, met for an entire day of negotiations during the first week in February without reaching any workable resolution.
Since that session, one or more of the foregoing party representatives has spoken with the mediator numerous times in order to progress the settlement efforts. For example, Apple representatives held telephonic conference calls with the mediator more than six times after the mediation. Samsung representatives held telephonic conference calls and other communications with the mediator more than four times after the mediation.
Apple and Samsung's second patent trial is due to kick off on March 31, with the trial set to cover different patent claims and a new assortment of accused Samsung devices, including the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy Nexus, and the first two iterations of the Galaxy Note.
A few months back, Apple tried to have the Galaxy S IV added to the patent suit, but Judge Paul S. Grewal rejected the idea in the interest of not overtaxing the court's resources. Apple's offer to drop an accused Samsung product from the suit to make room for the Galaxy S IV did not persuade the court. Apple said that by excluding the Galaxy S IV from trial, it would be forced to file an entirely new lawsuit.
Indeed, a persistent theme in Apple's ongoing lawsuits with Samsung is that by the time trial commences, many of Samsung's accused products are no longer relevant, or even available for sale.
