Did Samsung Copy Apple's Siri Voice Search Technology?

Apple

has repeatedly argued that Samsung is guilty of patent infringement. This has led to several dozen lawsuits worldwide as both firms sue (and counter-sue) in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

Their biggest trial concluded last August after an American jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple

. At the time, Samsung was expected to appeal the case. The South Korean tech giant followed through with these expectations, gathered some evidence against the jury foreman and

. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh denied the request. After considering how the jury calculated its penalty, however, Koh decided to

to $550 million. She also ordered another trial so that a

jury can decide how much Samsung should pay. By the time this dispute is over, Apple and Samsung will have spent more than two years on the battle. Not long after, the two tech titans will begin their next domestic feud. According to

, Koh has ruled that another Apple suit can head to court. This one involves another batch of patent infringement claims, including one surrounding Siri's voice search technology. Hoping to shorten the length of the next trial, Koh told both parties to reduce the scope of the case. Without any specific guidelines (Koh merely said that Apple and Samsung should trim their claims and expert witness testimony), however, it might be difficult for these tech giants to hold back. Samsung may fear that its case could be weakened by the reduction; Apple may feel the same way. Thus, they might simply proceed as normal to see if Koh orders any further instructions. If so, this would not be the first time that Apple attorneys disobeyed a court order. Last fall the company

in the United Kingdom after it altered the notice it was ordered to publish online. The judges wanted Apple to "correct any impression" that Samsung was copying its products. Apple complied but decided to defend itself by mentioning a more favorable verdict from a German court. Domestically, Apple and Samsung are scheduled to begin their third trial in March 2014. This gives the two firms exactly one year to prepare for battle. It will be up to a jury to decide if Samsung infringed on Apple's voice search technology and other (currently unnamed) patents. Meanwhile, the date for the second trial (the one in which a jury will only decide how much Samsung has to pay Apple for infringing on another set of patents) will take place sometime this year.