The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Thursday vacated [order, PDF] its damages determination in the longstanding patent lawsuit between Samsung and Apple [corporate websites]. The previous $399 million damages award was overturned [opinion, PDF] by the Supreme Court last month. Apple’s damages were initially calculated on Samsung’s total profits from the sale of phones that infringed on the iPhone’s patented design but the Supreme Court partially rejected this approach stating that profits could also be associated with the individual components of a product. It will now be a matter for the appeals court to decide.

This is the most recent installment of the ongoing patent dispute [JURIST op-ed] between the two electronics giants. In October the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reinstated the $399 million award [JURIST report] after originally overturning it. In July Apple filed a brief [JURIST report] asking the Supreme Court to rule against Samsung in its patent infringement lawsuit. Last January the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] granted [JURIST report] Apple’s motion for a permanent injunction against Samsung for infringing upon three software patents. In August 2014 the US District Court for the Northern District of California denied [JURIST report] Apple’s request to ban Samsung from selling any of its products that infringed on Apple’s patented technology. Earlier in August 2014 Apple and Samsung agreed to drop [JURIST report] all patent infringement lawsuits in courts outside of the US.