Apple’s Tim Cook and Samsung’s Choi Gee-sung were instructed by a San Francisco federal judge to meet for a two-day mediation to help resolve a high-profile US patent case. The companies are locked in bitter patent litigation all over the world, and the judge diarised the meeting to take place yesterday and today, with the intention of bringing one of the many cases to a close.

The 13-month-old US case is one in which the two companies have repeatedly accused one another of copying the look and function of one another’s tablets and smartphones.

Ironically, at the same time that Cook and Choi were preparing to meet, Apple’s lawyers filed a motion saying Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10,1 was designed “to mirror” Apple’s second-generation iPad.

Said the LA Times:

Though the two executives may come to agreements on minor elements of the sprawling and technical case — in which Apple has said Samsung “slavishly copied” many aspects of its iPad and iPhone devices — they are not considered likely to resolve it from across the negotiating table.

“This dispute isn’t ripe for settlement,” patent observer Florian Mueller told Reuters. “Under the present circumstances, the two companies’ delegations should spend a couple of fun days in Yosemite Park or Napa Valley, rather than meet in court only to pretend they’re being constructive.”

There was no sign of either CEO at the San Francisco federal courthouse on Monday, so they likely met in a secret location.

Nobody from Apple or Samsung would comment or provide any details on Monday about the meeting.

[Source: LATimes]