The Apple vs. Samsung patent debacle has been a recurring theme of the mobile industry during the past few years, with each company putting forth their cases pertaining to the supposed patent infringement of the other. Prior to each hearing, the executives high up in both Samsung and Apple meet up for clear-the-air talks in an attempt to find some kind of resolution. But this mandatory meeting seldom works where these two titans are concerned, and with another high profile court case looming, a meeting between Apple chief Tim Cook and JK Shin – just one of the Korean company’s three CEOs, has proved a fruitless exercise.
It was expected that Shin would be flying to the United States next week to meet with Cook, just before the February 19th deadline for the peace talks as declared by the court. However, according to reports out of Korea, Shin has no intention of leaving the country between now and the 19th, which would appear to suggest that the two head honchos have already tried, and failed, to find some common ground.
To be honest, though, given how many times these two companies have tried to sue each other – albeit with Apple mostly playing the role of instigator – any notion of an agreement being made was a non-starter, and the only reason the two will have met met was to appease the formality of the courts.
Whereas Steve Jobs was not against the idea of taking companies to court – he once belligerently promised to "spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank" to deal with the "stolen product" he felt was Google’s Android – Tim Cook is a much more emollient character, which sparked some optimistic folks to suggest that a deal could be done.
The Apple helmsman has, after all, noted in the past that he is not in favor of legal issues being dragged through the courts, but if even Cook cannot prevent the litigation in this instance, one suspects that the gloves will be off on both sides when the upcoming case does finally commence.
The case, overseen once again by Judge Lucy Koh in California, is expected to continue next month, and with Samsung having already had one of its multimedia synchronization patents thrown out and deemed "invalid," the Cupertino company looks to have more than home advantage on its side.
(Source: ZDNet)
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