Samsung Electronics Co. won a significant victory Wednesday, November 30, in its global tablet war with Apple Inc., as a panel of judges lifted a temporary ban on sales of its devices in Australia, The Wall Street Journal said.

Apple, which argues that the Samsung copied the design from the iPad, had already succeeded in persuading a court in Germany to bar the sale of some of its tablets there. The U.S company turned up the heat further this week by asking the same German court to ban sales of a modified Samsung device throughout the entire European Union.

But in Australia, the full bench of the Federal Court overturned last month's court decision to ban sales there while awaiting a final hearing on Apple's complaint. Because the commercial life of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is about 12 months, the court declared, such a temporary ban would "have the practical effect of killing off" the device in Australia and "deliver Apple complete victory in respect of its claims."

Samsung can't immediately sell its tablet device in Australia, though: Apple persuaded the court to delay the orders contained in the judgment until 4 p.m. Friday Sydney time, or 0500 GMT. Apple attorney Stephen Burley told the court the company would apply to the High Court in Canberra to have this latest decision reversed and the ban restored.

Barring an extension of the legal delay by the High 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 or originating in Australia," the judges said in their official ruling.

Apple doesn't disclose iPad shipments by country, but it said last month it sold 11.1 million iPads world-wide in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 24, up from 4.2 million a year earlier. Credit Suisse in June estimated it had sold over 500,000 of the devices in Australia.

Tablets so far are a small portion of Samsung's business. The Korean company, the world's largest technology manufacturer by revenue, shipped about two million tablets in the first half of the year, compared with 140 million cellphones.