Judge rejects Samsung's request to allow U.S. tablet sales

A U.S. judge on Monday rejected a request by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. to lift a ban on U.S. sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet computer that competes with Apple Inc.'s iPad.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, granted Apple's request to halt sales of the tablet, which runs on Google Inc's Android, giving the iPhone maker a significant win in the tablet patent wars.

Samsung had asked the court to stay the injunction pending resolution of an appeal.

The district court is not the last chance for Samsung to get the injunction lifted. Samsung has also appealed to a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, which has exclusive jurisdiction over intellectual property disputes.

Not allowed in the US yet

Samsung is also fighting an injunction issued by Koh on Friday against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone.

"We will continue to pursue a request for an appeal of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary injunction, which we filed on June 26 to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit," Samsung said in a statement.

Apple and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war in several countries, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

Apple sold 13.6 million iPads in January-March to control 63 percent of the global tablet market, according to research from Display Search. Samsung sold 1.6 million tablets, giving it 7.5 percent of the market.

Apple and Samsung did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters