Samsung fails to convince court to stay Galaxy Tab injunction

Reuters reported on Monday that a district court in the U.S. denied the South Korean electronics maker's request. Samsung had hoped to have the injunction put off until its appeal had been heard.

Judge Lucy Koh handed down the Galaxy Tab injunction last week after Apple won an appeal to have a design patent reevaluated for validity. Though Koh had ruled that the patent in question was obvious, the appeals court reversed the decision and paved the way for the injunction.

Samsung will still have a shot at having the injunction lifted via the appeal it filed with a federal appeals court.

In addition to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban, Samsung was hit with an injunction against its Galaxy Nexus smartphone last week. The sales ban is a heavy blow to Samsung, as the Galaxy Nexus is the flagship device for the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android and one of the company's top-selling smartphones.

Some industry sources have suggested that Samsung could lose as much as $60 million from the Galaxy Tab injunction and $120 million from the Galaxy Nexus ban.

Samsung's situation has become sufficiently dire that the company announced it was "working closely" with Google to defend itself. Though Google publicly declared support for its partners at the start of the legal confrontation between Apple and several prominent Android vendors, the company had stopped short of a declaration of support for Samsung in the past.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said on Monday that Samsung could have "big problems on its hands" if Apple succeeds in a third injunction against the company. Apple took aim at the new Galaxy S III shortly after it was announced, but Judge Koh said she couldn't fit the device into the near-term schedule.

Recent developments in Apple's legal disputes have begun to give shape to late co-founder Steve Jobs' vow to "destroy" Google Android. According to Jobs' biographer, the executive promised to go "thermonuclear war" on the rival operating system because he felt Google had betrayed his company and stolen its innovations. Apple's current CEO Tim Cook has been less dramatic in his public statements about the litigation, but he has repeatedly voiced a strong commitment to defending the company's intellectual property.