Samsung, locked in patent disputes with Apple, may scrap the release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia unless it wins approval to sell its newest tablet computer in the next two weeks, a lawyer for the company said.

Samsung is willing to abandon plans to launch the product because missing the Christmas season would result in the new tablet being “dead”, Neil Young, a lawyer representing the Suwon, South Korea-based company, told Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett in Sydney yesterday.

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Apple, which claims the Samsung tablet infringes its patents, has delayed the release of the Galaxy 10.1 for two months in Australia by seeking a temporary judicial ban on sales until after a trial on the patent claim. Samsung said a trial can't be held until next year because it must collect evidence.

It's part of a dispute between the two companies that spans four continents and began in April, when Apple sued in the US and claimed Samsung's Galaxy products “slavishly” copied the designs of iPhones and iPads. A German court in August temporarily banned sales of Galaxy tablets, a ruling Samsung has appealed.