Samsung has won a patent appeal against Apple as a U.S. appeals court on Friday overturned a $120mn jury verdict against the South Korean smartphone maker.
The case was regarding Apple's "quick links" patent, and the appeals court said that two other patents covering the iPhone's slide-to-unlock and auto-correct features were invalid.
The court also said Apple was liable for infringing one of Samsung's patents.
"Today's decision is a win for consumer choice and puts competition back where it belongs - in the marketplace, not in the courtroom," Samsung's spokesperson said.
Apple and Samsung have been battling over mobile device technology patents for years. Apple has mostly prevailed, and in December, Samsung paid Apple $548.2mn stemming from a separate patent case, which Samsung has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, a Reuters report showed.
The ruling on Friday was a unanimous one from a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit, the country's top court specializing in patent issues.
The ruling reverses a May 2014 verdict from a federal court in San Jose, California ordering Samsung to pay $119.6mn for using Apple's patented technology without permission.
Infringement of the quick links feature, which allows the device to recognise data on the touchscreen, such as a phone number, and link to it to make a call, accounted for nearly $99mn of the damages.
