The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with Samsung Electronics Co. in its high-profile smartphone patent dispute with Apple Inc., sending the case back to an appeals court to clear up how much the South Korean company must pay to the American rival for copying key iPhone designs. The decision would likely save Samsung in its penalty dues for Apple.

On Tuesday, the eight Supreme Court justices unanimously handed Samsung a victory in how much Samsung has to pay for copying the look of Apple’s product. In 2015, an appellate court ruled in Apple’s favor, ordering Samsung to pay $399 million in damages - all the profits it had made by infringing Apple’s three design patents filed as D677 (black square with rounded corners), D087 (bezel liquid crystal display) and D305 (grid-type app array).

Samsung appealed the appellate court’s decision regarding the calculation of damages, arguing that it should not have to fork over its total profits. The $399 million compensation represents all of the profits Samsung earned from its 11 Galaxy S models that Apple believed copied its design since 2010.

The lower court’s ruling was based on the U.S. Patent Act’s Section 289 that states selling an article of manufacture with a patented design is illegal, and that patent infringers shall be liable to the owner to the extent of his total profit.

But Samsung Electronics argued the compensation calculation based on its total profit from Galaxy S phones cannot be accepted because it could mean consumers chose Galaxy S phones only for the three specific design patents. Samsung said its smartphone was a product made with more than 200,000 patents and since the three design patents only covered a small part of the device, it was ridiculous to give Apple all the profits from the entire device.

The Supreme Court points out that the patent law does not require the profits to be on the entire device, but could be on separate components regarding the interpretation of the term ‘article of manufacture’ for the purpose of calculating damages.

The justices ruled Samsung Electronics may not be required to pay all the profits it earned from 11 phone models because the features it copied from the iPhone were only a part of Samsung’s devices, the AP reported. The case now returns to a lower court to determine what Samsung must pay.

At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, shares of Samsung Electronics were up 1.4 percent at 1,772,000 won ($1,517.4).

By Lee Dong-in

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