The past couple of years have seen several technology firms fighting legal battles amongst themselves.

Stoked by stiff competition in the smartphone and tablet market, Apple has landed several blows to its rivals, with several patent cases filed one after the other. Many rival devices particularly from Samsung felt the wrath of the Cupertino giant and were inevitably banned in certain countries.

The company has scored success in Germany and to some extent in Australia in terms of imposing a ban on rival gadgets. The US, on the other hand, has often been inconsistent for Apple's patent claims.

Though Apple won most claims, few other company devices were lucky to fall short of a ban. At a recent court battle, Apple lost a patent bid to do away with HTC devices in the US.

Here is a look at some devices that were banned in the market.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus:
Samsung Galaxy Nexus was applauded as the best devices to hit the smartphone market when it was launched a year ago. The Nexus made its debut with several new features and even stood out as a worthy replacement for Samsung Galaxy S3. Also known as Google's handset, the Nexus was banned across the US for awhile in June. Following an appeal by the South-Korean firm, the Nexus is now back in stores and is considered as one of the top competitors for iPhone 5.

HTC One X:
Apple didn't freeze HTC One X sales, but the smartphone didn't make it through customs easily as ITC issued an exclusion order in May. Several consumers were anticipating the HTC flagship device, which features a quad-core processor and a neat intuitive interface according to many leaks and rumors. HTC indeed lost some sales profit but the device ultimately reached users, though a little too late.

HTC Evo 4G LTE:
Another  HTC smartphone that faced similar consequences was Evo 4G LTE which was headed to Sprint network in the US. Sprint users had to wait quite a bit to get their hands on the device.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7:
This is the one tablet that felt the full heat of Apple. The tablet was completely banned in Germany following patent claims.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
Apple managed to get rid of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 off market shelves in Germany and Australia and later in the US. However, the model was outdated, hence didn't bothered Samsung as much.