Apple loses $120 million ruling against Samsung as patent battle drags on

Samsung scored a victory in its long-running patent battle with Apple as a U.S. appeals court overturned a $120 million jury verdict against Samsung related to Apple's patent-infringement claims against the company.

As reported by Reuters, a unanimous three-judge panel ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., which is reportedly considered the nation's top court in patent issues, said that Samsung did not infringe on Apple's "quick links" patent. That patent covers the ability for iPhone users to click on a phone number in an email, for example, to immediately initiate a call. The court also ruled that two other patents covering the iPhone's slide-to-unlock and auto-correct features were invalid, and that Apple had infringed on one of Samsung's own patents.

As noted by Reuters, Apple declined to comment.

"We are delighted with the resounding victory from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which found that two of Apple's patents should never have been issued," Samsung said in a statement. "We have spent decades developing some of the most revolutionary products and services in the technology industry, and today's decision proves that we did not infringe on any of Apple's patents."

While Samsung won a victory with this latest ruling, the South Korean handset vendor has been on the losing end more frequently during the past few years. In 2014, a federal court in San Jose, Calif., ordered Samsung to pay Apple $119.6 million for the patents in question. And in December, Samsung paid Apple $548.2 million due to a loss in a separate patent-infringement case; Samsung has appealed that case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Patent-infringement battles are an ongoing and common element in the U.S. wireless industry. For example, haptic feedback company Immersion sued Apple and AT&T earlier this month over what it said is patent infringement.

Such battles stem from the value of key patents in the space. For example, the Rockstar patent consortium -- owned by Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson and others -- paid $4.5 billion for the 6,000 patents that bankrupt Nortel Networks offered up for auction in 2011.

For more:
- see this Reuters article

Related articles:
Google settles patent litigation with Apple-backed Rockstar consortium
Samsung, Apple agree to drop patent litigation outside of U.S.

Article updated Feb. 26 with a statement from Samsung.