Mikey Campbell
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon have agreed to attend a mediation session by Feb. 19, about one month before the two tech titans are scheduled to return to the courtroom for yet another round of patent litigation.
According to a court filing first spotted by Reuters, Cook and Kwon will meet with in-house lawyers to discuss a possible out-of-court resolution before the two parties' second California patent trial begins in March.
The high level mediation is an offshoot of a Jan. 6 conference in which Apple and Samsung counsel met to "discuss settlement opportunities."
From Wednesday's notice:
Pursuant to this Court's November 13, 2013 Order that the Parties submit a proposal regarding settlement discussions before the March 2014 trial, Apple and Samsung jointly submit this Notice that the parties have agreed to the following:
- Senior legal executives from Apple and Samsung legal met in person on Monday, January 6, 2014 to discuss settlement opportunities;
- The parties agreed upon a mediator who has experience mediating high profile disputes. Mediation will take place by or before February 19, 2014;
- Each party's Chief Executive Officer and 3-4 in-house counsel will attend the mediation;
- No outside counsel will attend the mediation.
Cook previously met with Samsung Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and mobile head Shin Jong-Kyun in July of 2012 in a similar mediation session meant to broker some sort of resolution before the landmark Apple v. Samsung patent trial. The meeting was ultimately fruitless as disagreements on patent worth stalled forward progress.
Apple and Samsung are suing each other over alleged infringed patents dealing with smartphone and mobile device technology and design. This second case is slated to begin on Mar. 31.
Malcolm Owen
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45 Comments
What Samsung did still makes me sick. Aweful
just get another billion from them..
Regardless of the outcome of this mediation, I think it is paramount Apple (in it's own timeframe) drops Samsung as a material parts supplier. If I was TC, I would make that one of my top goals over the next three to five years
They simply cannot be trusted. And trust is everything
Regardless of the outcome of this mediation, I think it is paramount Apple (in it's own timeframe) drops Samsung as a material parts supplier. If I was TC, I would make that one of my top goals over the next three to five years
They simply cannot be trusted. And trust is everything
I would love to see that but Samsung makes so many components and has patents on some/many of them that it would be difficult for Apple to totally get away from them. The problem isn't Samsung per se, it's Samsung Mobile or whatever that division is called. I haven't heard that many bad things about the other Samsung divisions.
edit: I went back to the Mac Pro take-apart and found the following Samsung components. This isn't a long list so many these three things could be sourced from another vendor. They are all found on the PCIe flash storage card. I presume the entire card is made by Samsung so Apple would need to find a totally different source--maybe OWC can come up with one :-)
Samsung S4LN053X01-8030 (ARM) Flash Controller
Samsung K9HFGY8S5C-XCK0 Flash Storage (this is the big one)
Samsung K4P4G324EB 512 MB RAM
Apple, Samsung CEOs to attend mediation ahead of upcoming patent case
“All right, gentlemen, I just want to lay down the purpose of this meeting for the standard rea–”
“…What in the world is that?”
“What’s wrong, Mr. Cook?”
“Look at him. Look.”
“I don’t see…”
“You see the impudence of the American? We haven’t even started!”
“You shut up. Look at him. What’s he wearing?”
“A… white shirt, black blazer, glossy blue tie…”
“Yeah. He is. Do you see what’s wrong with that?”
“Not real–oh.”