Samsung Electronics, the world's largest handset maker, said Monday that it has appealed to a U.S. District Court against the ruling of ban on sales of the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

"Samsung appealed the court ruling on July 1. We asked the U. S. court to delay implementation of the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus phone," Nam Ki-yung, a Seoul-based Samsung spokesman, said by phone.

The appeal came after the U.S. District Court of California granted Apple the preliminary injunction against the Nexus model, the first smartphone running on Google's latest Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich, on Friday. The iPhone maker claimed that Samsung infringed on several patents, including Google's unified search function.

The Friday ruling came less than a week after the U.S. court blocked sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 table computer in the country on June 26. The preliminary injunction was issued on Apple' s request.

After the ruling, fears spread that the Galaxy S3, the latest versions of Samsung's Galaxy series, may face the similar sales ban in the U.S. as the Samsung's new flagship model runs on the Google's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Shares of Samsung closed at 1,174,000 won (1,024 U.S. dollars) on the Seoul bourse, down 2.25 percent from Friday's close.