It has been reported that Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, is not a fan of litigation and would highly prefer settling rather than a long drawn out lawsuit. We guess this is why it did not come as a surprise to hear that both Tim Cook and Samsung’s CEO, Gee-Sung Choi, will be attending settlement talks that will span the duration of two days from the 21st of May to the 22nd of May. This was revealed by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents who stated that Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero was the one who settled on the dates and who will also be overseeing the settlement talks as well.
The meetings will take place in a San Francisco courthouse, while the litigation itself is before the San Jose division of the court… one of the things Magistrate Judge Spero wants the parties to do is to provide a settlement statement until May 9 including, among other things, “a candid evaluation of the parties’ likelihood of prevailing on the claims and defenses”
Unlike the previous legal battles where the information was made readily available for the public, it seems that whatever transpires in the settlement talks along with the mediation and documents submitted will be confidential. It certainly is starting to look as if the fierce patent war waged by Apple and Samsung could finally be coming to an end.