The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to step back into the years-long feud over patents between the world's top smartphone makers, declining to hear Samsung's appeal of a lower court ruling that reinstated a jury award of about $120 million (roughly Rs. 776 crores) in favour of Apple.

The justices left in place a 2016 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a verdict that found South Korea's Samsung Electronics had infringed Apple's patents on several popular features of the California-based company's iPhone. Those included slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quick links, which automatically turn information like addresses and phone numbers into links.

The Supreme Court in December 2016 sided with Samsung in a separate case over its fight with Apple. In that one, the justices threw out a $399 million damages award against Samsung to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs.

A judge in California in October ordered a new trial over damages in that...