Apple’s attempt to secure a US import ban for a number of Samsung smartphones and tablets has been rejected by a US judge.

The iPhone maker wanted to ban the sale of the Samsung devices that were found to have copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad by a jury in August that also required Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

District Judge Lucy Koh – who oversaw the jury trial – said Apple had not presented enough evidence that its patented features drove consumer demand for the iPhone, and so it would be wrong to ban the Samsung devices from sale.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” she wrote.

Koh also rejected Samsung’s bid for a new trial based on an allegation that the jury foreman in the first trial was improperly biased towards Apple.

The patent war between Apple and Samsung started in spring 2011 when Apple accused the South Korean company of copying the design of the iPhone with the Galaxy range of smartphones. The companies have been engaged in patent-related legal disputes in numerous markets ever since.