The Apple filing came in the wake of an appeals court ruling earlier in the week that sided with Apple on the validity of an iPad design patent. Meanwhile, Apple and Samsung are scheduled to go into court-mandated settlement negotiations, set for May 21 and May 22, so the injunction is not likely to be granted over the next few days.

The motion for a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where Judge Lucy Koh is presiding over several cases involving Apple and Samsung patent claims for tablets and smartphones.

Koh had earlier in the year said that Apple was unlikely to win its patent claim against the Tab 10.1, siding with Samsung's contention that Apple's iPad-related design patent claim in question would be considered invalid. Samsung has said that aspects of the iPad design patent are too obvious to be patented.

However, earlier this week, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with Apple on the likely validity of the iPad design patent.

"While this Court had concluded that Apple had failed to establish likely success on the merits, the Federal Circuit held instead that Samsung had failed to raise a substantial question as to validity of the D’889 patent based on obviousness," Apple said in its motion to Koh Friday.