Apple has managed to secure another victory in its long standing legal handbag fight with Samsung. A US court backed an injunction request filed by Cupertino lawyers to ban US sales of Samsung’s, or should we say Google’s Galaxy Nexus.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that potential damages caused by the alleged infringement of four Apple patents justify the injunction. Apple alleges that the Nexus, which was reportedly designed to be lawsuit-proof, infringes on Apple’s search technology patents, including a patent used in Siri.

Judge Koh ordered Apple to post a $96 million bond to cover Samsung’s estimated losses in case it fails to prove its case. However, the trial is set for 2014. It is worth noting that Apple is also targeting Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III on similar grounds.

Analysts believe the ruling could undermine Samsung’s competitiveness in the long run. Patent analyst Florian Mueller believes the ruling could force Samsung to ship its handsets without the infringing technology, effectively dropping Siri-like functionality.

Samsung said it is disappointed with the ruling and that it is working closely with Google to resolve the matter.

At this point it is unclear whether Google will be able to get around the injunction with a simple software tweak, but it seems unlikely. Also, it is worth noting that one of the key features of Google’s new Android 4.1 OS is an advanced voice search engine, which seems to blow Siri out of the water according to initial reviews. Following the success of Apple’s complaint, it seems likely that Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet could also end up in court.

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