A pre-trial sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone has been overturned by a US appeals court, dashing Apple’s hopes of pulling its rival’s device from the market.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ended the injunction as Apple failed to sufficiently prove that consumers were buying the Nexus because of the technology that infringed its patents.

"It may very well be that the accused product would sell almost as well without incorporating the patented feature. And in that case, even if the competitive injury that results from selling the accused device is substantial, the harm that flows from the alleged infringement (the only harm that should count) is not," the court said in its decision.

It also noted that the district court had abused its discretion by granting the injuction, and sent the case back for reconsideration.

Judge Lucy Koh, who also oversaw the high-profile jury trial concerning Apple and Samsung, issued the pre-trial injunction on the Nexus in June, based on an Apple unified search patent that allows a device to search multiple data storage locations simultaneously.

The Nexus case was separate from the jury trial which found Samsung guilty of copying key features of the iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple US$1.05 billion in damages in August.

As Nexus is now an aging product in the Samsung line-up the ending of the sales ban is not expected have a huge impact on the smartphone market in the US.