Apple-Led Australian Ban on Samsung Galaxy Tablet Tossed

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Reuters

A visitor looks around behind Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet displayed for customers at a registration desk at South Korean mobile carrier KT's headquarters in Seoul.

That appeal Apple filed last week to roll back a decision by an Australian court to un-ban sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia? Rejected by Australia’s High Court today, clearing the way for sales of the Galaxy Tab once and for all. In fact Samsung’s tablet is on track to hit shelves in Oz before Christmas, handing Samsung a major victory in its global battle with Apple over design infringement.

Samsung’s Galaxy tablet was originally banned from sale in Australia in late July, after Apple claimed it was too much like its own iPad tablet. But just last week, an Australian appeals court unanimously overturned that ban, leaving Apple one last shot—a petition to Australia’s High Court to override the appeals court’s decision.

(MORE: Samsung Beats Apple, Gets Galaxy Tab Ban Lifted in Oz)

Apple petitioned, of course, but to no avail: Speaking for all three members of Australia’s High Court, chief justice Robert French said Apple didn’t persuade them it could win on appeal, and so denied the company a hearing, upholding the appeals court’s decision to lift the ban.

The battle rages on elsewhere, of course. Apple and Samsung are at each others’ throats across the planet, since Apple filed suit last April in the U.S. claiming Samsung’s tablet infringed on Apple’s iOS device design patents. Apple managed to get Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in Germany, where a German district court effectively agreed with Apple that Samsung’s designs were too iPad-like, ultimately banning the device from sale throughout the European Union.

Just yesterday, Samsung failed to secure a court order to block sales of Apple iPhone 4S in France–Samsung’s attempting to have Apple’s iPhone 4S banned in France, the U.K. and Italy. And earlier this week, Apple failed to secure a ban on Samsung’s tablets here in the U.S.

“While the win in Australia won’t give a big boost to Samsung’s revenue, it should be seen as symbolic,” said Choi Do Yeon, an analyst at LIG Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul speaking to Bloomberg Businessweek. “Samsung suffered a blow to its image from earlier losses, but now they’re recovering.”

Recovering in Oz, true, but this clash of corporate heavy hitters around the globe looks to continue indefinitely.

MORE: Germany: You’re Banned Forever Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Matt Peckham is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @mattpeckham or on Facebook. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.