An Australian judge in a patent lawsuit between Samsung Electronics and Apple has urged the two firms to settle their "ridiculous" dispute.

On Monday, the first day of a trial between the electronics giants in Australia, Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett was not happy to see the two companies in her courtroom. "Why on earth are these proceedings going ahead?"she said according to Bloomberg. "A similar dispute between any other two companies would be immediately ordered to mediation."

Bennett warned she would wait for the two firms to respond to her recommendation by the end of the week, saying, "Why shouldn't I order the parties to mediation?"

But chances of a voluntary settlement are slim given that they earlier failed to agree despite two court orders in the U.S. A recent closed-door meeting between Samsung Electronics vice chairman Choi Gee-sung and Apple chief Tim Cook in San Francisco came to naught.

Apple filed the lawsuit in Australia last year against Samsung for copying the design of its tablet PCs and smartphones. Samsung countersued for infringement of three patents covering its 3G wireless data transmission technologies.

Samsung and Apple are locked in lawsuits in nine countries.