Over the past year, patent battles have been fought by tech companies in courtrooms all over the world. The litigation is far from over though, and will continue throughout 2013. This is what's at stake on the patent battlefield in the near future. The patent brouhaha reached its high point in August when a California District Court jury awarded a $1 billion victory to Apple in a patent trial against Samsung over tablets and smartphones. Samsung is appealing the verdict and the two companies are continuing litigation in other countries too.