A court has banned the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in America, stating that the Android tablet infringes the Apple iPad design. 

The preliminary injunction comes ahead of a court case at the end of July that will see Apple and Samsung battle it out in the courts over whether the two tablets are too similar. 

“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly by flooding the market with infringing products,” Judge Lucy Koh wrote in her order. “While Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to directly compete with Samsung’s infringing products outweighs Samsung’s harm in light of the previous findings by the Court.” 

Koh said in December 2011 that she found the two products "virtually indistinguishable", but up until now hadn't acted to stop sales of the tablet in the US. 

The ban does now however affect the company's latest tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.

While the decision is unlikely to have any real ramifications on sales of tablets for Samsung, now that a second generation of the tablet is available, if Apple is successful it could have wider implications for Samsung and its other products such as its Galaxy S range. 

The case starts on 30 July.