Apple and Google talk patent settlement via CEO meeting

A new report from Reuters claims that Apple and Google CEOs Tim Cook and Larry Page have been conducting private one-on-one settlement talks regarding all these outstanding patent issues. Apparently they've been engaged in private discussions behind the scenes for well over the past week according to the report.

Reuters suggests that the two heavy hitters were conducting phone conversations last week and that it won't be the last one either. These talks have covered a range of intellectual property matters, including the ongoing mobile patent disputes between Apple and Android OEM's. Most recently they won a huge battle vs Samsung and I'm sure you're all well aware of that money draining outcome.

Discussion and friendly talks have also been being conducted on lower levels instead of just the CEOs, hinting that both companies could possibly be looking to end these tiresome lawsuits and patent issues. Hopefully we can all just get along and agree to a "truce" as Reuters puts it – although that is unlikely.

Apple's late Steve Jobs has openly denounced Google's Android as a "stolen product," and went as far as saying he'd use every penny of Apple's cashcow to "destroy Android" and even followed that by stating he was willing to "go thermonuclear war on this." Apple and Google's relationship with apps like YouTube and Google Maps have been growing further and further apart in iOS, so the current state of the relationship is unclear. The next phone call between the two CEOs was scheduled for this Friday but was apparently canceled for unknown reasons. Hopefully something positive comes from these talks but we'll just have to wait and see.