An appeals court has overturned a pretrial sales ban against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. This is a major setback for Apple in their case against the Electronics giant.

Apple are in the middle of all out war against Google partners, particularly Samsung who create some of the leading smartphones and tablets on the market.

Reuters add “The ruling on Thursday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is not expected to have an outsized impact on the smartphone market, as the Nexus is an aging product in Samsung's lineup. Apple's stock closed down nearly 2 percent at $628.10.”

The court's verdict however could prove important in the future, especially for companies who try to sue over patents that get competitor products pulled from the market.

This verdict is a counter result for Apple, who scored a great result in August when they landed a victory netting them over $1 billion in damages. They claimed that Samsung stole specific features of their iPhone and iPad products.

The Nexus phone was not included as part of that trial however Reuters say it “is part of a tandem case Apple filed against Samsung earlier this year.

District Judge Lucy Koh issued a pretrial injunction against the Nexus in June, based on an Apple patent for unified search capability. The appeals court then stayed that injunction until it could formally rule.

In its opinion on Thursday, the Federal Circuit reversed the injunction entirely, saying that Koh abused her discretion.”

Samsung still remain aggressive in the market and have a full new range of tablet computers and smartphones ready for launch in the last 3 months of the year.

Kitguru says: It will be very interesting to see how this battle develops into 2013.

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