A jury has decided Samsung must pay Apple US$539 million ($777m) in damages for illegally copying some of the iPhone's features to lure people into buying its competing products.

The verdict reached Thursday is the latest twist in a legal battle that began in 2011.

Previous rulings had already determined that Samsung infringed on some of Apple's patents, but the amount of damages owed has been hanging in legal limbo.

The issue escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court , which determined in 2016 that a lower court needed to re-examine US$399m of the US$548m that an earlier ruling had said should be paid to Apple.

Apple had argued it was owed more than US$1 billon while Samsung contended the US$399m should be slashed to US$28m.

- AP