[JURIST] Apple and Samsung [corporate websites] on Wednesday agreed to drop all patent infringement lawsuits in courts outside of the US. The move will result in the abandonment of litigation [PC World report] in nine countries, including South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain. The two companies issued a joint statement [WSJ report], which stated:

Apple and Samsung have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States. This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in US courts.

Judges have urged [Bloomberg report] the companies to settle their disputes in order to limit the extent of litigation, which has persisted for years.

Samsung and Apple have engaged in numerous disputes [JURIST op-ed] over intellectual property in judicial forums all over the globe. Apple accuses Samsung of copying its iPhone designs, while Samsung has argued that Apple is using part of its wireless-transmission technology without permission. In June Apple and Samsung agreed to drop [JURIST report] their appeals of a patent infringement case at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] that resulted in an import ban on some older model Samsung phones. Litigation inside the US will likely continue. In May a jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] ordered [JURIST report] Samsung to pay $119.6 million to Apple.