A judge has denied a legal request by Apple to ban US sales of Samsung smartphone models that a jury said illegally used its technology.

The decision is part of a series of rulings that US Judge Lucy Koh says she is releasing over a period of several weeks to address the many legal issues raised in the case.

Her ruling comes after Apple was awarded 1.05 billion dollars in damages this summer. A jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad.

Apple had urged the judge to permanently ban the US sales of eight Samsung smartphone models that a jury said in August illegally used Apple technology, while also seeking to add millions more to the award.

Earlier this month Judge Koh appeared ready to trim the billion-dollar jury verdict Apple won over Samsung Electronics, but gave no indication as to by how much.

Adding to the legal tangle, Apple filed a second lawsuit earlier this year, alleging that Samsung's newer products are unfairly using Apple's technology. That is set for trial in 2014. In addition, the two companies are locked in legal battles in several other countries.

Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny claimed earlier this year that Samsung wilfully made a business decision to copy Apple's iPad and iPhone, and he called the jury's 1.05 billion-dollar award a "slap in the wrist".

Samsung lawyer Charles Verhoeven has argued that Apple was trying to tie up Samsung in courts around the world rather than competing with it head-on. Samsung has also claimed that it was deprived of a fair trial in a court about 12 miles from Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters.