Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and its client Samsung have been ordered to pay over $2m (£1.2m) in legal fees and costs to Apple and Nokia for breaking a court order protecting a confidential patent licensing agreement.

A US court has ruled that Samsung and Quinn Emanuel are to pay Nokia around $1.15m (£677,000) and nearly $894,000 (£526,000) to Apple, for costs incurred in litigating Apple's motion for sanctions against the pair and the discovery associated with it.

The order was handed down by California judge Paul Grewal on Friday (20 June).

An investigation last year found that terms of an agreement between Apple and Nokia were leaked by lawyers at Quinn Emanuel, who had been given access to confidential Apple documents marked "for attorney eyes' only".

The document found its way to Quinn lawyers during the discovery stage of an iPhone infringement litigation, according to Northern District of California court filings.

A report containing key information from the documents, created by expert witness David Teece for Quinn Emanuel, was not fully redacted and was sent to over fifty Samsung employees, including senior licensing executives, and various counsel representing Samsung in overseas jurisdictions.

Quinn Emanuel had challenged Apple's motion for sanctions, urging the court to "substantially reduce Apple's and Nokia's requested fee requests".

The firm's argument – that Apple had not redacted the terms of its licence with Nokia from a document filed on the public docket last October – was  rejected by the court.

Quinn Emanuel also argued that the fees should be reduced to reflect Apple's and Nokia's "limited success" on many claims, which the judge ruled was "simply incorrect".

The protracted global patent battle between Apple and Samsung has handed roles to several law firms including Morrison & Foerster and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr for Apple. For the Quinn dispute, Nokia has instructed Alston & Bird.

Outside of the US, firms that have landed roles include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simmons & Simmons, both of which advised on litigation that saw Apple on its unsuccessful design infringement claim against Samsung in 2012.