By Sarah Buhr), Darrell Etherington at Techcrunch

Apple and Samsung have agreed to drop all non-U.S. litigation. The announcement came late Tuesday in a release first reported by the Financial Times. In the joint statement, the two tech giants said they “…have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States.”

This brings to an end a crucial part of the ongoing intellectual property battle between Apple and Samsung, which have been slugging it out for years in courts across the world, with noteworthy decisions rendered in Germany, Japan and in other markets. The Apple and Samsung dispute, which mostly sees Apple accusing Samsung of copying its device designs and Samsung retaliating with countersuits asserting infringement of its mobile phone tech patents, has been among Apple’s longest standing legal battles, after it settled suits with HTC, Motorola Mobility and Google earlier. Samsung has also been seen as a way for Apple to target Android indirectly, since the Korean company owns such a hefty share of that market.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But, as noted in the statement, this agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements or existing court cases within the U.S. Apple and Samsung will now focus their efforts in ongoing trials in two California courts, both of which are in the appeals phase.

Apple filed for a cross-appeal of final judgement in March. The most recent action happened last week when Apple dropped the cross-appeal judgement of a landmark 2012 ruling.

Keeping open the lawsuits in the U.S. likely doesn’t indicate a desire to continue the legal battle in that market, however, as both cases currently ongoing in the U.S. are in various stages of appeal, meaning that their ultimate resolution could finally bury the hatchet between the two device makers (though the lack of any licensing agreements mean tensions could flare up again in the future). Both have likely realized they have bigger fish to fry when it comes to the future of the mobile market, and challenges they face from emerging competitors including Xiaomi and other Chinese phone makers.

This could also be a sign that Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t quite as committed to a patent battle with Samsung as former CEO and founder Steve Jobs was reported to have been. Regardless of the reason behind the detente, it could be good news for the supplier relationship between Apple and Samsung, which ultimately should be good for both companies’ bottom lines.

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Related story:

Apple finds a new way to make Samsung lose $1 billion

By Brad Reed From BGR

Apple is making Samsung pay, and it we’re not just talking about patent lawsuits. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung’s component supply business has taken a big hit recently because Apple has decided to branch out and use a wider variety of suppliers to cut down its dependence on the Korean electronics giant. While Apple has had mixed results in finding new supply chain partners and has even had to reportedly crawl back to Samsung on some occasions, the big picture is that Apple’s moves are still taking a bite out of Samsung’s bottom line.

Business Insider’s Jay Yarow does a nice job of breaking down just how damaging Apple’s moves to diversify its suppliers have been to the profitability of Samsung’s chipset business.

“As a result of Apple’s switch, Samsung’s chip-making business is expected to have an operating loss this year of 877 billion won, or ~$851 million,” Yarow writes. “That would be down from an operating profit of 203 billion won, or ~$197 million, last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.”

Taken together, that represents a swing of about $1.048 billion in just a year, a huge chunk of which can be attributed to the loss of Apple’s business. While Samsung as a whole is still a hugely profitable company, this latest development is just another reason for it to feel a little bit nervous going forward.

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