A U.S. appeals court reversed a preliminary injunction banning the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone on Thursday.

Last February the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California had banned sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, after a lawsuit filed by Apple against the S. Korean company. The lawsuit involved four Apple patents for technology that allows users to touch a phone number on a Web page to dial the number, word placement, Siri voice recognition and unified search, and the ability to unlock a smartphone by sliding an image from one location to another.

However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which had previously put a stay on the injunction, today ruled that the district court in California "abused its discretion in entering an injunction" and send the case back to a California court for reconsideration.

"Samsung welcomes this reversal by the Federal Circuut as yesterday?s decision confirms that the role of patent law is to protect innovation and not to unreasonably stifle competition and restrict consumer choice," Samsung said in a statement. "We will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of our innovative products."

The Galaxy Nexus smartphone was unveiled last year by Google and Samsung.