Apple and Samsung have been battling it out for months now through various courts around the world over alleged broken patents, and today in a new twist we can tell you that Apple fires back with a ban on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US.

We recently told you that Samsung had won a 3G patent dispute against Apple, but today as Computerworld are reporting a federal court in California has blocked the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. The order was placed yesterday and grants a preliminary injunction, and basically bans Samsung and its US subsidiaries from either importing or selling the device in the US.

The patent in question refers to the ornamental design of the tablet PC, and the court had previously found that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was quite similar to the US Design Patent No. D504, 889, and according to the judge it was “virtually indistinguishable” from the original Apple iPad and the iPad 2.

Apple has been ordered though to post a bond of $2.6 million that would be used towards any damages sustained by Samsung if the ruling is later found to be wrong. Apple first filed for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 last July, which came along with a number of smartphones that Apple are claiming broke the D889 patent, and a utility patent.

Back in December of last year the same judge found that Apple had established that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 had likely infringed the D889 Patent, and that Apple were likely to suffer irreparable damage as a result, but at the time the court denied the injunction as the D889 Patent was likely to be invalid based on a number of prior art references.

This latest news continues the long line of claims and counter claims between the two companies, and some have questioned whether Apple are just running scared of the threat Samsung now poses in the smartphone market, and we can expect the saga to continue running for months yet.

Do you think Samsung has a case to answer?