As has been widely reported over the last 24 hours, United States District Court Judge in the Northern District of California, Lucy H. Koh, has issued orders for Apple and Samsung to participate in a ‘Magistrate Judge Settlement Conference’. (See, e.g., US judge sends Apple, Samsung to settlement talks, via Reuters.)On the face of it, the two companies are going willingly to mediation, although it is quite likely a case of Judge Koh having made clear that they could either attend voluntarily, or else she would make them go! Nonetheless, the discussions will be taking place at the absolute highest levels of the two companies, with each being represented by their respective CEOs (i.e. Tim Cook of Apple, and Choi Gee-Sung of Samsung) and General Counsel.
While pre-trial mediation is frequently unsuccessful, top executives of large corporations are not known for wasting their time on pointless exercises, and the fact is that the people in the room will actually have the power to make decisions which could terminate, or dramatically alter, the course of litigation between the two companies not only in the US, but in the other eight countries (including Australia) in which they are suing one another for infringement of patents and other intellectual property rights.
Tags: ADR, Apple-v-Samsung, Litigation
