They requested Justice Annabelle Bennett adjust her orders to prevent Samsung from launching any new tablet device in Australia. "Samsung says Galaxy Tab 10.1, we say any tablet device," Apple's counsel told the court. "We know what may well come is another version of the tablet. It's up to our friends as to how they name it, whether they call it the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or 10.2 or 10.1s or whatever it happens to be." But Samsung's lawyers rejected Apple's requests, saying the case only concerned the Galaxy Tab 10.1. They said any orders applying to other tablets could "bite" on existing products that were on the market like the Galaxy Tab 7 or 10.1v. "Your honour's reasons dealt only with the 10.1 device ... as a matter of principle your orders should only deal with the 10.1 device," Samsung's counsel said.

Apple's lawyer countered that the company was afraid that Samsung would launch a new tablet in Australia without Apple having the chance to check if it infringed its patents. "Our submission is that direction which would provide us a copy of the version proposed to be launched 10 days in advance," he said. Samsung's lawyers said such an order would be almost a rolling mandatory injunction that goes beyond the subject matter of the dispute. "Why should Samsung be put in a different position to any other trader in the marketplace, which is to give advanced warning so as to confer some process of effective pre-approval in the hands of its competitor," he said.Justice Bennett's final orders were that Samsung be prevented from launching "any version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1" until the completion of proceedings. She said Samsung would likely pre-announce any new future products and Apple would have ample opportunity to apply to the court for further injunctions. "It does seem to me not to be warranted that the sort of order that you've sought be applied," Justice Bennett said.

In granting the temporary injunction yesterday, Justice Bennett said that Apple had a prima facie case that Samsung had infringed two of its patents relating to touch screens and the gestures that control them. Patent blogger Florian Mueller, who has been covering the Apple vs Android patent battles around the world with a fine-tooth comb, has published an ominous post arguing the touchscreen patent Apple used was so broad that it could potentially be used by Apple to block all Android products from entering the market. "After today's decision, I believe no company in the industry be able to launch any new Android-based touchscreen product in Australia anytime soon without incurring a high risk of another interim injunction," he wrote yesterday. "The two patents on which today's ruling is based aren't Galaxy Tab 10.1-specific at all. They will affect all Android-based smartphones and tablet computers, across all vendors." But senior patent lawyer Mark Summerfield, from Watermark in Melbourne, has questioned Mueller's claims.

"Certainly, the present decision gives some additional weight to any further accusations that Apple may wish to level against Samsung or other competitors,'' he told Fairfax Media. ''However, the practical reality is that legal action is costly, and Apple will most likely continue to carefully pick its battles in order to maximise the value it obtains from its IP enforcement activities. In my view, there is no realistic prospect of Apple even attempting to block all Android products on the back of this decision. That horse bolted long ago.'' Mr Summerfield said the decision to grant the injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 only applied to that product and if Apple wished to obtain an injunction against any other Samsung devices it would need to go back to the courts to replay the entire process again. "If Apple wishes to block all Android products, then they will either have to sue every manufacturer, or go to the source i.e. Google,'' he said. ''Even then they could only prevent Google from continuing to supply Android to device manufacturers. An injunction would not be effective against manufacturers already in possession of the relevant code.''

In previous hearings, Apple lawyers have revealed how the company sees the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as the main competitor to the iPad 2. The lawyers said the Samsung tablet would be launched "with the velocity of a fire hose" and quickly reduce sales of the iPad 2. Loading A new directions hearing in the case is scheduled for 9:30am on November 1. The full hearing is unlikely to take place until next year. This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses