The U.S. sales ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone has officially gotten underway, as Google, the device's designer, has pulled the product from its Google Play store.

This move comes in the wake of Samsung's inability to persuade U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh to put a previously ruled U.S. sales ban on hold, pending an appeal by the company. Last Friday, Koh issued a preliminary injunction to ban sales of the product in the U.S.

Apple, who has taken Samsung to court over the Galaxy Nexus (among other things), claims that the latter infringed upon four of its patents - the biggest one being a patent that is related to universal search.

Google, however, is said to be rushing out a software update that it hopes will steer clear of the patents in question and thus allow the phone to re-enter the market.

Koh also recently issued a preliminary injunction to halt the U.S. sales of Samsung's Galaxy 10.1 tablet.

Article Tags:  sales, samsung, google, galaxy, injunction, patents, preliminary, product, nexus, court, issued,