South Korea's Samsung won a major legal battle against Apple Inc. Wednesday as an Australian court overturned the decision disallowing the sale of its Galaxy tablet in the country.

Nevertheless, the tablet will not go on sale until Friday afternoon as Apple's lawyers filed for a stay order, which could also allow for an appeal to the Supreme Court.

"Samsung will be permitted to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia provided it keeps accounts of all transactions involving that device in Australia," according to the judgment by Federal Court Justices John Dowsett, Lindsay Foster and David Yates.

The decision reverses an earlier ruling by Justice Annabelle Bennett, who ordered the Galaxy Tablet 10.1 banned from sale in Australia. Samsung's lawyers appealed and argued that Bennett "misunderstood and misapplied" basic requirements of the law and elements of her reasoning were "grossly unjust".

The decision is a big win for Samsung as it tries to catch up with the Christmas shopping momentum.

The two leading electronics firms are entangled in a flurry of lawsuits involving patent infringements lodged in courts in 10 countries across Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

American firm Apple was successful in blocking Samsung from selling its tablets in Germany. In the Netherlands, Apple was able to get a court order forcing Samsung to modify some of its smartphone models.

With regard to the smartphone infringement case presented by Apple against Samsung, an Australian court will hear the arguments in March and April next year. This, however, would not affect the selling of the Samsung smartphones in the country.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Samsung said it was pleased by the decision to lift the preliminary injunction.

"We believe the ruling clearly affirms that Apple's legal claims lack merit," the statement said.

Samsung said it would later make an announcement about market availability.