Apple and Samsung executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, are set to meet in a San Francisco Court room in an effort to iron out a long running feud between the two companies that started when Steve Jobs was CEO.Cook is seen as a more conciliatory CEO than Jobs and is set to come face to face with his Samsung counterpart, Choi Gee-sung, which could lead to the settlement of a long-running legal dispute between the two tech companies.
The meeting scheduled for May 21 and 22 will be before Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero.
According to legal sources Spero has requested that both parties provide him with a settlement statement by May 9 that should include “a candid evaluation” of the parties’ likelihood of prevailing on the claims and defences.
The two CEOs, together with their chief lawyers, will try to find a solution to an ongoing patent-related legal dispute that began in April 2011 when Apple accused the South Korean electronics company of “slavishly” copying elements of the iPhone and iPad in the design of its Galaxy line of mobile handsets and tablets.
Samsung subsequently shot back with legal action of its own, claiming the Cupertino Company’s iPhone infringes 10 of its patents. Since then, lawsuits between the two companies have been springing up across the world including Australia.
