Overturning an earlier decision, a U.S. appeals court on Friday reinstated a lower-court verdict that Samsung Electronics should pay Apple US$120 million for violating three iPhone patents. In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled that Samsung did not infringe upon the patents on "quick links," "slide-to-unlock" and "auto-correct" technologies, and therefore does not need to pay $120 million ordered by a lower court.

But on Friday, the full panel of judges at the same court overturned the February verdict.

"We affirm and reinstate the district court judgment," the court said in the 8-3 decision. "We thus reinstate the district court's award of costs which the panel had vacated."

Friday's ruling reinstated the 2012 verdict by a federal court in San Jose, California, that ordered Samsung to pay Apple US$119.6 million for violating the three patents.

The case is one of a series of legal battles between the two smartphone giants, and is separate from another case in which Samsung was ordered in 2012 to pay Apple $1.05 billion for violating Apple's patents. That amount was later reduced to $548 million.