Samsung was facing a penalty of $548 million for imitating elements of the iPhone's design — this itself was reduced from an initial charge of nearly $1 billion. However, during the company's most recent appeal, the justices said that the patent infringement could affect just a component of the phones, like its design or appearance, rather than the sum total of the device. The Justices voted unanimously 8-0 in Samsung's favor. Chief Justice John Roberts noted Samsung did not infringe on "all the chips and wires" during the case in October.

The case (still) isn't over. Now it will return to a lower court to determine a recalculated portion of profits that Samsung will have to pay to Apple -- something that part of the Supreme Court noted wouldn't be easy. "The term 'article of manufacture' is broad enough to embrace both a product sold to a consumer and a component of that product whether sold separately or not," Justice Sotomayor wrote.