Samsung and Google got some legal breaks over the weekend following decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to allow the temporary sales of the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

But the same court upheld an earlier ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh, which banned Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 from store shelves in America pending the presentation of arguments coming from Apple.

Apple has been working since 2011 to banish Samsung smartphones and tablet from the U.S. and a number of key markets around the world, with its campaign drawing so far mixed results.

In terms of its tablet war with competitors, the American tech giant has maintained its overwhelming dominance of the market segment - holding on to the 63 per cent lead it enjoys over its nearest rival, Samsung, which only secured over seven per cent of the market in the same period.

Analysts were in agreement that the legal stoush between the two giants hardly made an impact in the tablet rivalry. Not yet, anyway.

But the smartphone tussle was a totally different story as shown by the headways gained by Android handsets since the start of the second half last year.

For the first time, Samsung's Galaxy smartphones dethroned the iPhone as the bestselling phone by the end of Q3 2011 but with Apple issuing the iPhone 4S in the following month, the crown was snatched back by the U.S. firm by yearend.

Samsung fought back at the start of 2012, and as March drew to an end, the Asian company pocketed strings of records that amazed both the tech and the business world.

It earned the reputation as the biggest global firm in terms of overall revenues and then it replaced Nokia as the largest mobile phone maker in the world, meaning Samsung has surpassed the Finnish company as the number one producer of smartphones and feature phones by the end of Q1 2012.

Within the period, the company also regained the smartphone throne from Apple, with its gains punctuated by indications that its Galaxy S series phones, the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note were closing the gap on the iPhone as the preferred smartphone brand.

All the more Apple was pricked as it tried to halt the sale of the new Galaxy S3 to U.S. stores, yet to no avail. The handset debuted globally and the only thing that prevents the product from getting into the hands of U.S consumers was a supply chain issue, which Samsung itself had admitted.

But the last three weeks were not entirely favourable at all to Samsung as Ms Koh handed down successive injunction orders that prevent specific products of the companies from being displayed and sold in U.S. retail outlets.

Notwithstanding, the South Korean tipped last week of record financial results that will be officially released later this month, which somehow cushioned its current legal woes that could lead to Samsung's tablet not seeing the light of the day in the U.S. market at all.

As indicated by Ms Koh, Apple made an impressive argument in convincing the court to issue pre-trial injunctions on Samsung's tablet offerings.

According to The Associated Press (AP), the U.S. court pointed to evidences offered by Apple, which suggested that "that Samsung altered its design to make its product look more like Apple's."

It is expected, analysts said, that Apple will follow through with the tractions it has gained in the U.S. District Court on its attempt to convince the Washington appellate court that Samsung's Galaxy product lines were 'slavishly' copied from the iPad and iPhone.

On the other hand, Samsung won a stay, after a series of setbacks, as the company may have voiced out arguments that tech blogger Florian Mueller described as "potentially meritorious."

The court, Mr Mueller told AP, may have sided with Samsung on its assertion that "there could be serious harm from the injunction."