Apple Inc. won a further delay in the release of Samsung Electronics Co.’s newest tablet computer in Australia, with the South Korean company agreeing not to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 until the end of September.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, sued Samsung in Sydney Federal Court last month, claiming the 10.1 tablet infringes Apple patents. Apple also sued Samsung in the U.S. and Germany, claiming the Galaxy products “slavishly” imitated the design and technology of the iPad and iPhone.

Samsung planned to start selling the Australian model of the 10.1 tablet in the week of Sept. 12, with the company’s lawyer David Catterns today telling Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett he would resist any attempts to prevent the sales from starting as planned. He changed his mind when Bennett said it wouldn’t be “sensible” not to wait until a hearing on Apple’s request for an injunction barring the sales.

“We are prepared to defer our launch to the 30th,” Catterns told the judge, following a brief huddle with the company’s other lawyers and representatives.

Samsung had agreed at an Aug. 2 hearing to delay the sales of the 10.1 tablet to Aug. 31, after Apple claimed the device infringed 10 of its patents, including the “look and feel” of the iPad.

Samsung said the claim was based on a U.S. model and the Australian version was different. The company last week provided Apple’s legal team with three samples of the 10.1 version intended to be sold in Australia, Apple lawyer Steven Burley told the judge today.

“The new model has some reduced functionality,” Burley said. It still infringes at least two of Apple’s patents, he said, and the company will pursue its request for an injunction on the sales until a trial on the patent infringement can be held.

“It doesn’t have reduced functionality,” Catterns responded, saying Burley’s comment sounded like an Apple advertisement. “It has different features.”

A hearing on Apple’s request for the injunction was scheduled for the week of Sept. 26 and it will likely take two days, Bennett said.

The agreement to halt advertising and sale of the 10.1 tablet doesn’t affect any other Samsung tablet or smartphone available in Australia, or other countries, the company said following the Aug. 2 hearing.

A German judge said on Aug. 25 that Apple’s intellectual rights are probably strong enough to ban the sales of the 10.1 tablet in that country.

In the U.S., Samsung is arguing that Apple stole the design for its iPad from the Stanley Kubrick 1969 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” (Bloomberg)