After a string of legal reverses, Apple Inc yesterday won a significant patent battle against its arch rival Samsung Electronics after a US court granted its plea of halting sales of the South Korean company's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US market.

The injunction against Samsung comes less than a week after a federal judge in Chicago tossed out Apple's patent claims with prejudice against Google's Motorola Mobility unit. (See: US judge dismisses Apple's patent suit against Motorola Mobility)

That ruling came two days after Samsung won its first patent battle against Apple after a Dutch court ordered the iPhone and iPad maker to pay damages to the South Korean electronics giant over a patent violation in the Netherlands.

Judge Lucy Koh of the US district court in San Jose, California, had in December refused Apple's plea to ban sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and other Galaxy smartphones, (See: Apple fails to block Galaxy sales in US), but a federal appeals court requested Koh to reconsider Apple's request for an injunction.

Koh granted Apple a preliminary injunction on finding that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be a lot similar "in the eyes of the ordinary observer" to an Apple patent and "virtually indistinguishable" from Apple's iPad and iPad 2.

The 10-inch Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad have similar designs, slim and nearly identical screen sizes.

''Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products,'' Koh wrote in her ruling, according to the Associated Press.

The ban will come into effect as soon as Apple posts a $2.6-million bond, and if a higher court overturns the ruling, the $2.6 million bond will be given to Samsung as compensation for the losses it incurred during the ban period.

In a statement, Samsung said it was disappointed by the decision and has already filed an appeal in the federal appeals court in Washington, DC, but added that it does not expect the temporary injunction to have a significant impact on its business in the US since it has a wide range of Galaxy Tab products.

Samsung can workaround that patent infringement by making some design changes, similar to the one it did in Germany a few months back or settle with Apple by paying licensing fees, say analysts.

The case is part of a much larger global patent battle since 2010 between Apple and Samsung over the $219 billion smartphone and tablet market.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in more than 20 cases in at least 10 countries as they vie for the top spot in the lucrative market for smart phones and tablets.

Apple is leveraging its technology patents right to deprive Samsung access to markets for smart phones and tablet PCs in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, the US, Japan and several other countries.

Apple, so far is the leader in the tablet market having sold 13.6-million iPads in the January-March period to control 63 per cent of the global tablet market, while Samsung sold 1.6-million tablets, giving it 7.5 per cent of the market, according to research firm Display Search.