South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics Co., which has been engaging in legal disputes with Apple Inc. over patent infringement, said Friday that a U.S.

court's earlier compensation order worth US$930 million is excessive, adding that it has not copied Apple's products.

In an appeals trial held at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Samsung said the earlier ruling should be overturned as its products do not have the Apple logo and have different home-button designs.

"We have buttons on the bottom front. We have circular holes on the top. We have differently shaped and placed speakers," said Kathleen Sullivan, a Samsung attorney, urging for the earlier ruling to be overturned in an oral argument.

"It is absurd," she said, adding Apple's demand is like asking for the "the profit of an entire car because of infringement of the design of the cupholder." 

Samsung's latest move comes after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Apple, ordering the South Korean tech giant to pay US$930 million earlier this year in damages for 23 Samsung products that infringed Apple patents related to smartphones and tablets.

While the 23 devices named in the lawsuit are no longer being sold in the U.S., industry watchers said the ruling carries more weight as part of a bigger patent war under way among leading tech players trying to survive market saturation.

The two firms are also engaged in a separate second-round lawsuit in the U.S., in which Apple claimed another set of patent violations by Samsung's newer Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Tab 2.

Samsung and Apple have been engaging in legal wrangling in the U.S. since April 2011, accusing each other of copying patented technologies in their smartphones.

Since then, the dispute has spread to South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France, and Australia.

But the two agreed in August to end lawsuits outside of the U.S. (Yonhap)