Christmas may have come a little early for Samsung this year thanks to today’s ruling that will allow their Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be sold in Australia. In a blow to Apple’s campaign against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, a federal court lifted the ban on sales of the Galaxy Tab and effectively overturned last month’s ruling that the tab was to be prohibited from being sold due to patent infringements filed by Apple.

Samsung celebrated the court victory in an official statement:

Samsung Electronics Australia is pleased with today’s unanimous decision by the Federal Court to lift the preliminary injunction on sales of the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1. We believe the ruling clearly affirms that Apple’s legal claims lack merit. We will make an announcement regarding the market availability of the GALAXY Tab 10.1 in Australia shortly.

It’s not exactly a clear-cut victory for Samsung (yet) as Apple won a stay on the sale of the Galaxy Tab until Friday at 4PM in Australia. Within that small window, Apple is expected to appeal the court’s decision. Apple has been waging a similar fight in Germany, citing that the Galaxy Tab was too similar in design to Apple’s iPad. It remains to be seen if Samsung can attain a second victory over Apple in that case, or if the case in Australia is even definitely closed.

So is Apple really grinching out over the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, or is the patent claim actually legit? Share your opinions in the comments.