$400 million in legal fees later, Apple and Samsung reportedly discussing patent settlement

The desktop software industry reached a similar settlement in 1997, when Microsoft and Apple settled, and Tim Cook is emotionally more balanced than Steve Jobs as far as patent wars go, considering them a necessary evil, and not a tool for "thermonuclear" revenge on Android.

Apple suffered a setback in February, when Judge Koh refused to halt the sales of Samsung devices in the US, citing Apple's patent design sketches being too broad, and some of them even resembling the 1994 Knight Ridder electronic reader concept. Cupertino didn't budge and hired one more famous law firm from Los Angeles to double down on the patent war efforts.

It's estimated that the companies have doled out close to $400 million in legal fees in the last several years, so an eventual settlement will leave many lawyers without the boat of their dreams, but on the other hand all this money and wasted energy could be redirected into something more productive. Like getting more than a day of battery life from our smartphones, for example.

source: Bloomberg