The trial case between Apple and Samsung continues as the effort to reach a deal between the two giants failed.
In a legal filing on Friday, February 21st, 2014, the two companies said that during the first week of February, Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-Kyun and other executives from the South Korean company giant met with Apple CEO Tim Cook for for a full day of mediated negotiation talks. The companies also spoke with the mediator by phone several times after the face-to-face.
"Since that session, one or more of the ... representatives have spoken with the mediator numerous times in order to progress the settlement efforts," the lawyers said in a report to the court.
"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."
In January 2014, the two company executives agreed to thrash out a settlement to their long-running intellectual property dispute by attending a mediation session. However, "notwithstanding these efforts," however, the filing reads, "the mediator's settlement proposal to the parties was unsuccessful."
The companies detailed the lack of progress. Judge Lucy H. Koh of the U.S District Court in San Jose has been pushing the sides to settle the two-year-old case.
Cook has repeatedly expressed his distaste for legal entanglement, this particular disagreement appears to be intractable enough to keep the companies returning to the courtroom time after time.
While the two sides said they remained willing to work through a mediator, the lack of a settlement points them toward another trial.
"Parties remain willing to work through the mediator jointly selected by the parties," they said in the report.
Apple and Samsung, the world's top two smartphone makers, have waged legal battles over mobile devices since Apple accused Samsung of copying the iPhone and the iPad in 2011. Later, Samsung claimed that Apple had used its technologies without permission, expanding battles to courts in Asia, Europe and North America.
In November 2013, a Silicon Valley jury added $290 million to the damages that a previous jury said Samsung owed Apple for copying vital iPhone and iPad features, bringing the total award to $930 million for Apple (the final damages don't match the initial figure Apple sought which was $1.05 billion). A massive win for Apple over Samsung.
The previous verdict covered 13 older Samsung devices.
The latest trial will consider Apple’s claims that Samsung’s newest devices, like its Galaxy S III, also copied Apple’s technology. Whereas many of the continuing infringement disputes focus on old hardware made by the two tech companies, the GS III on the dissecting table can further increase the size of damages award should Samsung again be found guilty of infringement.
Apple may been seen to win across the board this time. But the fact is that the California-based company is not winning in the marketplace. Samsung recently surpasses the tablet market against iPad, and its Galaxy S 5 is going to take more chunks out of Apple's iPhone 5S consumer base.