In response to Samsung's request for US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, to lift the preliminary injunction on the sale of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country, as a jury had found that a patent which was the basis of the ban had not been violated, Apple has said in a recent court filing that the preliminary ban must remain in place.

Apple has argued in its court documents that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary injunction cannot be dissolved by Judge Koh because the company had decided to appeal the ruling by the jury.

The iPhone-maker further added that the Samsung tablet will be banned anyway because it had earlier been determined by the same jury that the device infringed on three of multitouch patents owned by Apple.

With Judge Koh having set a September 20 hearing for considering Samsung's request for the dissolution of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary ban, Apple said that Samsung's appeal of the verdict handed out by the judge in June "divests this court of jurisdiction."

In its court filing, Apple said that if the preliminary injunction is dissolved, only to be reinstated after some time, the move will not only confuse the consumers, but will also apparently not prevent the supposed "irreparable harm" to Samsung.

Apple also drew attention to Samsung's statement that "the injunction is not likely to have a significant impact on its business" because it has already started selling "a successor to the Galaxy Tab 10.1."