A federal judge on Friday denied Apple’s demands for an immediate victory in a multibillion-dollar patent trial. Apple sought the long-shot bid as punishment for Samsung Electronics’s decision to issue a controversial press release on the first day of testimony.

The San Jose Mercury News reported Friday that US District Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple’s request after polling the nine jurors to determine if they read media accounts based on the news release. All said they’ve abided by the judge’s admonition to refrain from reading about the case.

Samsung attorney John Quinn authorised the release on Tuesday, which complained about Koh’s exclusion of evidence favorable to Samsung.

The release also included the evidence. Apple sued Samsung last year alleging that some of the South Korean company’s smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Samsung denies the allegations and argues that all companies in the cutthroat phone industry mimic each other’s successes without crossing the legal line.

Quinn had been arguing for weeks to allow the jury to see the disputed evidence that purports to show Apple’s iPhone being influenced by Sony designs.

Quinn and the judge had a testy exchange over the evidence on Tuesday before opening statements started. Koh has rejected Quinn’s argument on several occasions and grew exasperated with him when he refused to stop arguing the point.

Apple claimed the release was designed to taint the jury. Quinn countered that Samsung has a right to release documents that are publicly available.