United States District Judge Lucy Koh on Thursday ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet does infringe on multiple Apple patents. Judge Koh failed to order an injunction preventing the sale of the tablet in the U.S. however, stating that Apple must first establish the validity of the patents in question. According to the judge, Apple may have difficulty doing so, but she did take extra care to point out how similar Samsung’s tablet is to the iPad. Read on for more.

The preliminary hearing took an interesting turn, Reuters reports, when judge Koh held both tablets above her head and asked Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan if she was able to distinguish one from the other. “Not at this distance,” Sullivan replied, reinforcing Apple’s claim that Samsung’s tablet is a “copycat” device. Another Samsung attorney was able to distinguish Samsung’s tablet from the iPad.

The matter at hand in Koh’s court surrounds patents though, and Samsung says it has successfully raised doubt about the validity of the patents in question. “We think we’ve clearly raised substantial questions,” Sullivan said in the San Jose court on Thursday. Judge Koh said that she would deny Apple’s request to block the sale of Samsung’s tablet based on utility patents Apple claims are being infringed, but she has not yet made a determination regarding the design patents Apple claims are being infringed by Samsung.

Samsung maintains that Apple’s request for an injunction is baseless, however Apple spokeswoman Kristen Huguet disagrees. “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad,” she told Reuters. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed on Apple patents and he banned sales of the tablet in Australia by local Samsung subsidiaries.

Read