Apple and Samsung chief executives will meet with the aim of settling their smartphone patent disputes ahead of a trial scheduled to begin in California in March.

The two largest smartphone players in the world were ordered by a US court to submit a proposal for mediation, according to a court filing seen by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the filing, legal representatives from both companies recently agreed on a mediator for the talks which are set to take place on 19 February. Apple’s Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon plan to attend the talks, along with their in-house counsels.

Similar talks between the companies failed to find a resolution in advance of a jury trial in August 2012 which awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, a figure that was recently reduced to $930 million after a portion of the damages was recalculated.

The March trial involves a different set of patents from those in the 2012 trial, and more recent Samsung products, including the Galaxy S III smartphone.

Industry commentators believe that as the trial involves newer products, the damages award could be even bigger than in 2012 if Samsung is found to have infringed the Apple patents.

A motion filed by Apple to block sales of a range of Samsung devices in the US was recently revived after an appeals court ordered a California judge to reconsider a verdict rejecting the possibility.

The most recent ruling in the global patent battle between Apple and Samsung took place in South Korea in December when a Seoul court ruled that Apple didn’t violate some of Samsung’s patents and rejected the South Korean firm’s request for payment of KRW 100 million ($94,096) in damages.

The two companies have also been embroiled in patent litigation in Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.

According to Gartner, Samsung held a 32 per cent share of the smartphone market in the third quarter with Apple on 12 per cent. The two companies earn the majority of their profits in the smartphone segment.