Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., the world’s largest technology company, failed to get a ban on Samsung Electronics Co.’s iPad 2 rival extended in Australia, enabling the South Korean manufacturer to start selling the tablet immediately.

Apple was attempting to persuade judges of the High Court in Sydney today to impose a lower court’s ban on the sales and advertising of the Galaxy 10.1 Tablet, which was overturned by an appeal court last week. The ban had been in place since mid- October.

High Court Justice John Dyson Heydon on Dec. 1 extended the ban on releasing the Galaxy tablet pending today’s hearing, delaying Samsung’s bid to get the device on Australian store shelves for the Christmas sales season.

The Australian dispute over at least two patents relating to touch-screen technology is part of a battle between the companies on at least four continents that began in April, when Apple sued Samsung in the U.S. and accused it of “slavishly” copying the designs of its iPhones and iPads. Samsung countersued, saying the iPhones and iPads infringe on its patents concerning wireless transmissions.

Samsung is the second-largest component supplier for Apple. The Suwon, South Korea-based company gets about 7.6 percent of its total revenue from selling memory chips, displays and other components for the iPhone and iPad, according to Bloomberg data.

The case is: Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. NSD1243/2011. Federal Court of Australia (Sydney).

--Editor: Douglas Wong, Anand Krishnamoorthy, Michael Tighe

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in Sydney at jschneider5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net; Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net