A US judge on Monday rejected Apple Inc's request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics' smartphones, according to media reports.

A US jury few months back had ruled that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. As a result of this Apple had been awarded $1.05 billion in damages.

Following the verdict Apple had sought a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, the report said.

 "The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple's patents," Koh wrote.

"Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions", she said.