In a blow to Apple a US judge on Friday dismissed the litigation between Apple and Motorola Mobility with prejudice, meaning it can't be refilled. Judge Richard Posner in Chicago federal court said that Apple Inc cannot pursue an injunction against Google's Motorola Mobility unit, effectively ending a key case for the iPhone maker in the smartphone patent wars, Reuters reports.

Apple had hoped a decisive ruling against Motorola would help it gain an upper hand in the smartphone market against Android.

"Apple is complaining that Motorola's phones as a whole ripped off the iPhone as a whole," Posner wrote. "But Motorola's desire to sell products that compete with the iPhone is a separate harm and a perfectly legal one from any harm caused by patent infringement."

“Neither party is entitled to an injunction,” Posner wrote. “Neither has shown that damages would not be an adequate remedy.”

Earlier this month, the judge rejected each company’s money damages theories and canceled a jury trial set for June 11. “That was a simple failure of proof,” not that damages are incalculable, Posner said.

According to Bloomberg, that trial would have been the first between Apple whose iPhones are the world’s most popular line of mobile phone and Google, whose Android operating system is the world’s most used mobile phone platform since Google completed its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility last month.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet declined to comment on the ruling Motorola Mobility spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said the company was pleased that Posner dismissed Apple's case.

Both parties have the option to appeal Posner's ruling.

Motorola sued Apple in October 2010, a move that was widely seen as a pre-emptive strike against an imminent Apple lawsuit. Apple filed its own claims against Motorola the same month.