US court rules Apple didn't infringe Google's Motorola Mobility patent

The US Court of Appeals has reportedly ruled that tech giant Apple didn't infringe on a patent owned by Google's Motorola Mobility when developing the iPhone.

The International Trade Commission (ITC), investigating patent infringements, had ruled in 2013 that Apple had not violated six patents that Google acquired when it bought Motorola Mobility in 2012 for 12.5 billion dollars.

Motorola had originally filed the lawsuit in 2010, when it asserted that Apple infringed on its intellectual property, including the use of technology that stops a user from accidentally activating the phone's touch screen when the handset is on his or her ear, Cnet reports.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had been examining only one of the six patents in question.

The Cupertino, California-based company has been embroiled in long-running patent battles with rival Samsung, in which the South Korean smartphone giant has been ordered to pay Apple 290 million dollars in damages, bringing the total amount owed to 930 million dollars.