In the high-profile Apple-Samsung trial in California on Tuesday, U. S. District Judge Lucy Koh once again blocked Samsung from using evidence which, according to Samsung's lawyer John B. Quinn, was "critical" to invalidating Apple's main allegations in the lawsuit.

With Judge Koh barring Samsung from presenting images of a smartphone which, as per the company's claims, was being developed in 2006, the year before the iPhone was introduced by Apple.

In a filing, Samsung said that the images provide evidence enough to substantiate the fact that the next generation mobile handsets - with a "simple, rounded rectangular body" - were being developed by the company before Apple announced its iPhone in 2007.

On Tuesday, prior to the hearing of the opening arguments in the trial, Quinn requested Judge Koh to reconsider her decision barring the evidence; and the request was turned down by the judge in what she said was at least the third time she had done so.

About the verdict by Judge Koh, Samsung later said in an emailed statement that the ruling implied that Samsung was barred from telling the jurors "the full story" and show the pre-iPhone design for the Samsung handsets that were "in development at Samsung in 2006, before the iPhone."

The South Korea-based company further added that the evidence which was being excluded would have "established beyond doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design."