HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― The recent ban on the sales of one of Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartphones in the United States will likely have a limited impact on the South Korean tech giant, as the Galaxy Nexus smartphone is an older model, Goldman Sachs said Monday.

Last Friday, a U.S. district court ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, an Android-based smartphone co-developed by Samsung Electronics and Google Inc., infringed on some of the patents belonging to iPhone maker Apple Inc., blocking Samsung Electronics from selling the phone in the U.S.

“The impact on Samsung Electronics’ smartphone shipments and revenue may be limited as the Galaxy Nexus is an older smartphone and its life cycle is coming to an end,” a Goldman Sachs report said, maintaining its “Buy” rating and the target price at 1.2 million won ($1,050) for the Samsung shares.

However, the investment bank said the preliminary injunction could affect Samsung as well as other smartphones that use Android 4.0 as the operating system for their handsets.

The decision in the U.S. court was mainly based on items involving features in Android 4.0, developed by Google Inc., Goldman Sachs added.

The latest ruling immediately followed another preliminary injunction, which prohibited Samsung from selling its tablet Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S. last Tuesday.

Samsung and Apple, the two top smartphone makers, have been embroiled in a legal tussle since April, when the U.S. company first accused the South Korean firm of copying its iPad and iPhone for Samsung’s Galaxy series of mobile devices.

Samsung fought back with its own claims of patent infringement by Apple, causing the dispute to expand to 30 cases in 10 countries in Asia and Europe.

Earlier on Monday, Samsung said it has requested the U.S. court delay implementation of the ban on the sales of Galaxy Nexus phones.