After scoring a temporary sales reprieve in Italy in October, Apple is now also able to continue selling its iPhone 4S in Australia until March next year at least. An Australian court has agreed to hear a case by Samsung Electronics, with which it is looking to ban sales of Apple’s latest smartphone, citing a trio of patents as well as over 25 claims.

According to Reuters the patent infringement case will be heard in the Australian Federal Court in Sydney court over a period of three weeks starting in March 2012. Justice Annabelle Bennett stated that iPhone 4S sales in Australia can go ahead in the meantime and that she would announce a more specific date for the hearing on Friday.

Apple’s lawyers asked for the case to start during August 2012, but that date was too far away according to Bennett. “They [Samsung] are trying to expand the Android market. The longer it's left the harder it will be for Samsung," Justice Bennett explained.

Last month Milan judges turned down Samsung’s request for a sales ban of the iPhone 4S smartphone in Italy. This meant that the Cupertino-based iPad and iPod maker could go ahead with the smartphone’s Italian launch, but the court did however agree with both companies’ requests to submit additional evidence, with this decision being up for review on 16 December.

 

In related news Samsung also recently filed a request to have access to the iPhone 4S’s source code.