Apple has won an appeal to reinstate a patent-infringement verdict it won against Samsung Electronics worth US$119.6 million. The case centred on the patent for Apple’s slide-to-unlock feature for smartphones and tablets.

The US Court of Appeals said an earlier three-judge panel was wrong to throw out a verdict in February favouring Apple and ordered the trial judge to consider whether the judgment should be increased, based on any intentional infringement by Samsung.

Apple claimed Samsung infringed patents for the slide-to-unlock feature, as well as autocorrect and a way to detect phone numbers so they can be tapped to make phone calls.