Surprise, surprise. The two companies that have been going at it in courtrooms around the world for the past year and a half, failed to reach any kind of settlement in their patent dispute this weekend.
In response to a suggestion by Judge Koh last week, attorneys from both Apple and Samsung met over the weekend in a last-ditch settlement effort before the trial gets handed over to the jury this week…
As you can imagine, the talks didn’t go so well. Bloomberg has the scoop:
“The parties have met and conferred about case narrowing, but have not been able to narrow their cases further,” according to a joint filing signed by attorneys on both sides. The filing didn’t refer to talks between the CEOs, Tim Cook at Apple and his counterpart at Samsung, Kwon Oh Hyun.”
In a second report this morning, the news outlet is claiming that the CEOs from both companies are expected to speak to each other today, in a final attempt to resolve their differences. But given the way things have been going throughout the trial, it’s more than likely just a formality at this point.
And unless something crazy happens, it looks like the case could be handed over to the jury as soon as tomorrow. All that’s left to do is to go through the final jury instructions and closing arguments from both sides.
There’s an awful lot at stake here to be decided by citizens. Apple is asking for as much as $2.5 billion dollars in damages. And Samsung is essentially fighting to invalidate Apple’s precious design and trade dress patents. All eyes in the tech world will certainly be on this northern California courtroom this week.