The patent wars continue on in Silicon Valley, as a federal judge orders the CEOs of Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc to work out their differences in face to face mediation. Smartphone technology is the issue.

Tuesday, in a District Court in San Jose, Federal Judge Lucy Koh gave the two companies 3 months to come up with a settlement conference that will be with Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero. Both Samsung CEO Gee-Sung Choi and Apple CEO Tim Cook will have to be in attendance for the mediation.

The Problems Going into Mediation Services

The mediation services will have to concede that "As the parties have indicated in their joint statement, the chief executive officer and general counsel of Apple and the chief executive officer and general counsel of Samsung shall appear and participate." According to Koh's order.

Apple first sued Samsung last spring, asserting that Samsung's line of Galaxy phones including the Galaxy Tab tablet were patent infringements copying both the iPad and iPhone. Samsung countersued, claiming that Apple was the perpetrator of the technology patent infringements. An intellectual property battle of epic proportions ensued. The late Steve Jobs infamously quipped "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this.”

Civil Mediation Between Oracle and Google Raises Questions

Last year also saw the very similar war between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page over Android. This failed to prevent the suit from going to trial this week. However, in this latest case, "If Apple feels their patents are rock-solid, as does Samsung, I don't exactly know what will come out of the mediation session.” Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies has opined.