US judge rejects Apple’s request for Samsung sales ban

Apple's request to have the sale of Samsung's devices banned in the US turned down in the latest twist in the two firm's legal battle.

The request came as part of the Samsung's appeal against a ruling in August that awarded Apple damages of $1bn.

In response to the appeal, Apple asked for infringing Samsung devices withdrawn from sales, claiming they hurt its sales.

However, judge Lucy Koh said there was little evidence sales had been impacted by the devices being available for sale.

"The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple's patents," she said according to numerous reports.

"Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions."

A spokesperson for Samsung said it welcomed the ruling.

"We are pleased that the judge today denied Apple's move to limit consumer choice, and restrict fair competition in the marketplace."

V3 contacted Apple for comment but had received no reply at the time of publication.

The near-endless legal battle between the warring firms has rumbled on throughout 2012 with courts around the world including the UK hearing cases between the two on issues of technical and design patents.

Apple notable lost a case in the UK that saw it forced to post apologise notices explaining Samsung had not infringed its patents. This led to the firm being dragged to court after its initial apology was deemed insufficient.