Those talks, though, haven't softened the rhetoric between the two firms. This week's protest in Sydney­-whether Samsung was directly involved in it or not -- and the ads jabbing Apple in the run up to the Galaxy S III show that.

Even Apple's CEO Tim Cook, not known for his volatility, expressed irritation at the behavior of Samsung and others at an earnings event held by the company this week. "I've always hated litigation, and I continue to hate it," he told analysts at the event. "We just want people to invent their own stuff."

Follow freelance technology writer and on Twitter.