Despite the fact that the primary disagreement between the two tech titans had been resolved, the U.S. Supreme Court again rejected to consider Apple Inc.'s AAPL.O request to resurrect an effort to invalidate three Qualcomm Inc. QCOM.O smartphone patents on Monday.

The justices upheld a lower court finding against Apple after also rejecting the company's appeal of a lower court decision in a case that was closely related to this one and involved two additional Qualcomm patents in June.

In 2017, Qualcomm filed a lawsuit against Apple in federal court in San Diego, alleging that the company's iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches violated many mobile technology patents. The lawsuit concerned a larger international conflict between the two digital behemoths.

At the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple contested the legality of the patents at issue in this case.

In 2019, the parties to the dispute reached a settlement, agreeing to a multibillion dollar deal that permits Apple to keep utilising Qualcomm chips in iPhones. Thousands of Qualcomm patents were licenced to Apple as part of the deal, but the patent-board proceedings could still go on.

In 2020, the board upheld the patents, and Apple appealed to the Federal Circuit, a court with expertise in patent law. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, claimed it had the right to appeal since San Diego-based Qualcomm might file a new lawsuit when the licence expires, possibly as early as 2025.

Last year, a three-judge panel on the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 to dismiss the complaint for lack of standing, concluding that Apple's risk of facing more legal action was speculative and that the case would not have an impact on the settlement payments.

Similar to the 'materially identical' case the high court rejected, Qualcomm has once more claimed that Apple has not demonstrated a specific injury to support the appeal.