Apple, Samsung CEO talk yields no settlement

The chief executives of Apple and Samsung have talked but did not settle the high stakes patent dispute between the two electronics companies, a Samsung attorney said in court on Monday.

Tim Cook at July 2012 media conference in Idaho. Credit: Jim Urquhart/Reuters.

US District Judge Lucy Koh had requested that the two talk on the phone at least once more before the jury begins deliberating this week.

Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patents dispute that mirrors the struggle for industry supremacy between the two rivals that control more than half of worldwide smartphone sales.

Apple accuses Samsung of copying the design and some features of its iPad and iPhone, and is asking for a sales ban in addition to monetary damages.

South Korea's Samsung, which is trying to expand in the United States, says Apple infringed several patents, including some for its key wireless technology.

Top executives from both companies had participated in mediation with a US magistrate judge before trial, but Koh asked them to explore settlement once again.

"I see risks here for both sides," Koh said last week.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday. In court on Monday, Samsung attorney Kevin Johnson told Koh nothing had come from the talk.

"We will see you tomorrow," Johnson said.

Closing arguments begin

Closing arguments kicked off as the high stakes trial between Apple and Samsung drew towards a climax in a US Federal Court in California.

The jury will likely begin deliberating on Wednesday US time.

Apple spent four years pouring resources into developing the iconic iPhone, while Samsung couldn't keep up and eventually decided to copy its major competitor, an Apple attorney said in court.

Apple attorney Harold McElhinny urged jurors to consider the testimony of a Korean designer who said she worked day and night on Samsung's phones for three months.

"In those critical three months, Samsung was able to copy and incorporate the result of Apple's four-year investment in hard work and ingenuity — without taking any of the risks," McElhinny said.

A Samsung attorney is expected to begin his closing argument later.

The trial, which is in its fourth week, revealed details about the famously secretive maker of the iPhone and iPad, some substantive and some just colorful.

An Apple industrial designer described working around a kitchen table with his team to come up with the company's mobile products.

Its patent licensing director said Microsoft was one of the only companies it agreed to license its design patents — but only because Microsoft consented to an anti-cloning provision.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)