Apple and Samsung Electronics have agreed to drop their appeals of a patent-infringement case at the U.S. International Trade Commission that resulted in an import ban on some older Samsung phones. It seems that Apple and Samsung have been able to agree that there was nothing for them to gain from their appeals of last year's final ITC ruling on Apple's complaint against Samsung.

In the appeals, Samsung had been seeking to overturn the ban, while Apple was trying to revive other patent claims it lost. That one was related to a headset, and Samsung claimed to have a workaround in place anyway.

For Samsung, an import ban of the specific phones would have no commercial effect because the ITC had cleared Samsung's workarounds.

The import ban will remain in effect, according to a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.

In any case, the latest agreement doesn't mean that the two companies have stopped fighting hard on other fronts.

They both appealed the final district court ruling in their first California case, with Apple presumably still trying to obtain an injunction and Samsung mostly trying to bring down the damages award, which is mainly related to design patents. They will certainly appeal the forthcoming final ruling in the second California case as well.