FILE PHOTO: Customers walk past an Apple logo inside of an Apple store at Grand Central Station in New York, U.S., August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

MUNICH (Reuters) - A German court ruled on Thursday that iPhone maker Apple Inc AAPL.O infringed a hardware patent of Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O and said the U.S. company could no longer sell some iPhone models in Germany which contain a particular component.

The ruling is not final as Apple can appeal to a higher court, judge Matthias Zigann told the court.

The German case is Qualcomm’s third major effort to secure a ban on Apple’s lucrative iPhones over patent infringement allegations after similar court efforts in the United States and in China, one of which resulted in Chinese court ordering a ban on sales of some iPhones there earlier this month.

(This version of the story corrects detail on appeal process in second paragraph)