Apple and Samsung raise a white flag on their legal battles

Tech titans Apple and Samsung have agreed to withdraw all legal cases against each other outside the United States, raising the white flag in their long-running legal battles.

The rivals had patent litigations over their smartphones pending in nine countries, including Australia, aiming at blocking sales of each other’s products.

However, both said they would continue to fight the most high-profile cases in the US.

“Apple and Samsung have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States,” the companies said in a joint statement.

“This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in US courts.”

The most recent case in the US revolved around Apple’s allegations that Samsung had stolen elements of its smartphone function and design, including the universal search feature.

Apple won that case in May, with Samsung Electronics ordered to pay $US119.6 million ($A129 million) to Apple for infringing two of Apple’s smartphone technology patents.

Samsung contended during the trial that Apple had exaggerated the importance of its patented iPhone features, while Apple said the South Korean company was only able to compete in the market because it had effectively copied key features of the iPhone.

Outside of the courts, Apple is looking healthier than its rival financially, having recently posted a quarterly profit of $US7.7 billion ($A8.19 billion) off the back of its strong iPhone sales. Samsung’s quarterly guidance was lower than expected.

However, Samsung has recently retained its top position in the worldwide smartphone market over Apple, with a global market share of 25.2% off 74.3 million units for the July quarter. Apple’s market share was 11.9%.