This was reported by the wall street journal. The discussion continued, it said with reference to informed persons.
At present, however, there are no signs of an imminent breakthrough, the newspaper added. Samsung proposed a broad agreement that would allow the companies access to each other's patents. It is unclear whether apple is interested in such a deal. The companies had previously tried several times to settle the patent dispute.
The dispute, which has been going on for more than two years, has spread to about 50 lawsuits in about a dozen countries. Apple founder steve jobs saw the design and functions of the iphone copied in samsung devices and took the matter to court in spring 2011. Samsung countered with its own accusations of idea theft, which relate primarily to technical patents.
The conflict is getting a lot of attention: samsung is by far the world's largest supplier of computer phones, apple kicked off the smartphone revolution with the iphone and is currently the number two in the market.
The biggest success in the dispute so far was won by apple last august: californian jurors awarded the iphone company billions in damages. However, apple subsequently failed to enforce sales bans against samsung devices. In addition, the court ordered a new trial on almost half of the amount of damages – 450 million dollars. This part had been miscalculated by the jury. Another trial is scheduled to begin next year in california, focusing on newer devices.
Samsung last succeeded in june with the U.S. Trade commission ITC, which found patent infringements in several older models of iphone and ipad. This could ban variants of the iphone 4, the iphone 3 and 3GS, and the ipad and ipad 2 with cellular connectivity from the U.S. Market. However, this only concerns devices that were sold via the major american mobile communications operator AT&T. Apple appeals the decision.