Regions

On Tuesday, Samsung Electronics negotiated with EU officials to resolve the charges it incurred by striving for injunction against Apple's use of a vital cell phone patent, two sources said.

The negotiations started in December when the acting European Union competition regulator, European Commission, informed the South Korean firm that it was being unethical by actually wanting to ban Apple from using the fundamental patents.

"Samsung has been involved in settlement discussions for several months now. Samsung wants to settle," one of the informants who is familiar with the issue said.

If the EU regulator decides that Samsung violated the EU laws, Samsung will have to pay as much as $17.3 billion although it may also be possible that Samsung will just settle to avoid the fine and the controversy.

Samsung and Apple remains to be the world's leading smartphone manufacturers by capacity and transactions. Their ongoing competition resulted to patent disagreements in about 10 countries while they continue to rule the fast-growing cell phone industry.