A man is reflected on a screen showing the iPhone XR at an Apple store in Beijing on January 3, 2019.

A national Chinese anti-counterfeit alliance called on Apple on Thursday to comply with a court order banning sales of some iPhones in the country.

The order was made in December at Qualcomm's request, and the iPhone maker has appealed to overturn the ban.

The court in China, the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, issued two preliminary injunctions against four of Apple's Chinese subsidiaries for patent infringement. The two California-based companies have been entangled in a years-long legal dispute over patent royalties that is being fought out globally.

Apple must respect the court "rather than defy and even trample the Chinese law by leveraging its super economic power and clout," the China Anti-Infringement and Anti-Counterfeit Innovation Strategic Alliance said in an English-language statement on its website on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how much influence the alliance has.

The Beijing-based alliance is a non-government organization which seeks to protect intellectual property rights, according to state news agency Xinhua. The group's members include several Chinese trade associations, universities, Alibaba, JD.com and Xiaomi and has offices in Hangzhou, Xiamen, Tokyo, Seoul and San Francisco.