Samsung and Microsoft announced the end of their legal spat, although little was revealed in a terse joint statement noting the settlement.

“Samsung and Microsoft are pleased to announce that they have ended their contract dispute in US court as well as the ICC arbitration. Terms of the agreement are confidential,” it said.

The US computing giant had previously said that Samsung was looking to avoid paying royalties “amounting to billions of dollars”.

While the companies had an agreement in place dating back to 2011, there was a subsequent fall-out following Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset business – a deal which made it a competitor of Samsung.

Microsoft said that Samsung paid it $1 billion in patent licensing fees for the year to 29 August 2013 – before the existing deal fell apart – indicating the size of the sums at stake.

Samsung argued that smartphones made or sold by Microsoft after the closing of the Nokia deal are not covered by the earlier agreement.