No peace deal for Samsung, Apple

A meeting between the top executives of the world’s most-watched smartphone rivals reportedly failed to produce a patent peace accord.

Shin Jong-gyun, the chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics’ IT and mobile communication (IM) division, was said to have met with Apple chief executive Tim Cook last week in California, after an order by a U.S. court to reach an agreement by Feb. 19.

Samsung did not comment on whether the meeting took place althoughShin did not appear in Samsung’s weekly CEOs meeting on Wednesday or participate in other company events.

The two sides reportedly couldn’t resolve their differences, according to industry sources. Many were skeptical that an agreement could be reached because previous negotiations between the two tech giants have failed.

Last month, a court document showed that Cook and Samsung’s Vice Chairman and CEO Kwon Oh-hyun planned a meeting before Feb. 19 to discuss the patent battle that has lasted for years. Only the two executives and in-house lawyers were supposed to meet.

In November, Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court of Northern California, who has been presiding over the dispute that began in 2011, ordered the companies to submit a settlement discussion proposal before they enter a second round of litigation that is scheduled for March 31.

The difference from the first round is that both companies will be battling over patent infringement on the latest models. Samsung is accusing Apple’s products, including the iPhone 5, iPad 4, iPad Mini and the laptop MacBook Pro of infringing its technology, while Apple has set its eyes on Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note2.

The previous round of litigation focused on older models, some of which were no longer in production.

Samsung accuses Apple of stealing four patents, including a remote video transmission system, recording and reproducing digital images and speech as well as an international standard.

Apple accuses Samsung of stealing its Siri voice search system, slide-to-unlock images as well as asynchronous data synchronization.

Last year, in the first round of the case, Apple was awarded about $930 million.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]