Apple CEO Tim Cook meets with Samsung execs to discuss patent war

US District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California ordered Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as the top-ranking Samsung executives Choi Gee-sung and Shin Jong-kyun on July 16, where they met in the US to discuss putting an end to the on-going patent lawsuits that are being fought across the world.

The US jury trial was scheduled for July 30, but The Korea Times reports that the two technology leaders met early. This is the second time in two months that they've met, with Samsung Electronics' COO Lee Jay-yong also reported to have scheduled talks with Cook while the Apple CEO was attending the Sun Valley Media Conference between July 10 to July 14.

Where it gets more interesting, is that an 'unnamed Samsung official' told the Korean news website that Samsung placed an added importance on the meeting as they were "very important business partners", in which they very much are. This is thanks to large orders for processors, LCDs and memory components that are using in Apple's iDevices. Samsung provided a whopping $7.8 billion in parts for Apple devices in 2012, meaning that Apple is Samsung's largest customer.

Both companies are headed back to the court halls in California in just over a week, meaning we should know what the second round of talks means for not only the companies, but us, the mere mortal consumers.