Samsung tablet hard to swallow in US

A US judge on Monday rejected a request by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. to lift a ban on US sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet computer that competes with Apple Inc.'s iPad. Last week, US 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. Samsung is also fighting an injunction issued by Koh on Friday against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone. 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. The case is U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.