Samsung has had its bid to hammer Apple over patents roundly rejected by an appeals court, and the next step may be to take its fierce electronics rival to the Supreme Court.

A federal appeals court refused Samsung’s request to reexamine the appeal of a 2012 jury verdict that found the company violated the patents of Apple’s iPhone, according to a San Jose Mercury News report.

The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Samsung’s request without commenting on it. Samsung had hoped to get the court to reconsider its previous ruling, which had upheld Apple’s patent claims. That means we may be headed to a dramatic conclusion: the U.S. Supreme Court may be called upon to hear the case from Samsung if they choose to appeal, which they almost certainly will as it would cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

A three-judge panel had ruled against Samsung previously, prompting Samsung to argue that it should be heard before the full 12-judge panel as the previous ruling erred.

As bad as that judgment went, it could’ve been worse for Samsung. The company had an original judgment of $1 billion reduced to $548 million, about $400 million is based on that one part of the verdict.

Apple initially brought the case against Samsung, arguing that the company’s smartphones and tablets infringed on Apple’s patent rights on its popular iPhone. Sensing potential problems for them as well with this ruling, other Apple competitors like Google, Facebook, and Hewlett-Packard rallied in support of Samsung in requesting a rehearing, but the appeals court wouldn’t budge.

The August 2012 verdict ruled that Samsung had violated patent or trademark rights in 23 products, including Samsung’s popular Galaxy S2 smartphone, a major competitor to the iPhone.