It comes as little surprise that tech giants –Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics and Apple – are heading to more legal battles after negotiations failed to achieve a settlement in a patent dispute.

Representatives of both companies met in a full-day, closed-door session to discuss a possible resolution with a mediator, but could not find enough common ground to avoid the legal trial, which is supposed to start next month. The Feb. 18 meeting included top officials from both companies: Apple (News - Alert) CEO Tim Cook, general counsel Bruce Sewell, chief litigation counsel Noreen Krall, chief IP counsel BJ Watrous; and Samsung CEO, JK Shin, IP center heads Seung-Ho Ahn and Ken Korea, CFO HK Park, and heads of licensing Injung Lee and James Kwak, according to news reports.

It was reported, too, by IT Pro Portal that Apple reps has at least six phone conferences with the mediator, and Samsung had at least four phone conferences.

"Notwithstanding these efforts, the mediator's settlement proposal to the parties was unsuccessful," according to a document recently filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif. “Parties remain willing to work through the mediator jointly selected by the parties.”

It was in 2012 that Apple was awarded $1.05 billion by a California jury over a patent dispute – which was lowered after judicial review to about $900 million. The new case relates to disputes over newer devices. In January, a judge ruled that Samsung infringed on Apple's auto-correct text patent, news reports said. The upcoming trial in California will likely focus on Apple patents used in newer Samsung products, including the popular Galaxy S III smartphone.

The Wall Street Journal reports these newer products are big sellers, and “industry experts say there is a possibility of an even larger damages award if Samsung is found to have infringed Apple's patents.”

There are similar legal battles between the companies that took place in other nations.

Last year, Samsung saw 31.3 percent of the smartphone market, compared to Apple's share of 15.3 percent, according to data from IDC (News - Alert), reported by The Journal.