This isn’t the first time we’re telling you that Samsung and Google could be working more closely together to fight against existing and future Apple-related legal threats, as we heard that the two giants will work together in this regard a few months ago when the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was banned in the U.S.

Since then, Samsung has lost several other legal fights to Apple, with the most important defeat being delivered in the first U.S. patent case where a jury found that the South Korean Android maker owes the iPhone maker $1.05 billion in damages for willfully infringing several patents with a variety of Galaxy-branded devices.

The Korea Times reports today that Samsung’s mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun confirmed that he will meet with Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday. Shin failed to mention the topics of the discussion, but he did specify that “strategic meetings” will also take place with major U.S. carriers next week.

It’s almost certain that the two execs will also discuss the Apple matter, as both parties are independently attacking and defending against Apple in several lawsuits. Of all those trials, it’s the Apple vs Samsung conflict that currently represents the biggest patent battle in the mobile ecosystem, with the two parties suing and countersuing each other in over 50 different cases.

It’s also worth mentioning that Google chose to take a rather neutral stance following Samsung’s devastating defeat in the U.S. saying that Apple has mostly targeted Samsung’s own hardware and software features rather than Google’s Android.

Will the two parties take a joint more aggressive stance against Apple in the months to come? It’s too early to tell, and we can only wait to see what Shin and Schmidt will talk about this Thursday.

However, it looks like Samsung isn’t that disturbed by this fight against Apple. According to Shin, the company plans to sell even more smartphones this year than initially expected:

Although the fight with Apple is becoming more dramatic, Shin clarified his bullish stance to boost handset sales by saying Samsung doesn’t much care about the ongoing litigation-related issues. “Samsung revised up this year’s total handset sales target to 400 million from our earlier projection of 370 million,” he said.

That’s certainly an interesting response from Samsung. Should the fact that “it doesn’t much care” about the legal issues be a matter of concern? Does that mean that Samsung doesn’t really care whether the jury’s verdict will be overturned or not?

On the other hand, the confidence that will sell 30 million handsets more than initially anticipated would certainly make up for any Apple lawsuit losses, whether it’s $1.05 billion, or around that figure – Apple has requested an additional $707 million in damages and various sales bans for the infringing devices.

We’ll be back with more news from the patent war once we have them, in the mean time we’re certainly looking forward to see what comes out from this Shin-Schmidt meeting in Korea.