Samsung phone bans stay out of Apple's reach

A US appeals court on Monday rejected Apple's request to fast track its bid for a sales ban on several Samsung Electronics phones, ruling the iPhone maker could not argue its case to the full appeals court right away.

Apple's iPhone (L) and Samsung Galaxy Note are displayed at a shop in Tokyo August 31, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files

A lower court judge had rejected Apple's bid for a permanent injunction following a blockbuster trial last year.

In its ruling on Monday, the Federal US Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, said a three-judge panel will first consider Apple's appeal, and the full appeals court would not decide whether to hear the case until after that.

Representatives for both Apple and Samsung could not immediately be reached for comment.

The fight in the appeals court comes after Apple won a US$1.05 billion verdict last year against Samsung in a California trial court.

Apple followed up its win by seeking a permanent ban on several older Samsung phones, but analysts expected Apple to try to extend such a ruling to Samsung's hotter selling models like the Galaxy S III.

US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected Apple's request.

The fight between Apple and Samsung has been widely viewed as a proxy war between Apple and Google.

Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and tablets run on Google's Android operating system, which Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, once denounced as a "stolen product."

The Federal Circuit ruling on Monday allows Samsung to keep its products on store shelves while Apple's appeal proceeds on a slower pace.

The same appeals court had rejected a separate Apple bid for a pretrial sales ban against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, and last week refused to rehear that appeal before the full court.

The case in the Federal Circuit is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. et al., 2013-1129.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)