Judge Lucy Koh has just ruled that the Galaxy S GT-i9000, the S II GT-i9100, and Galaxy Ace are no longer part of the Apple v. Samsung trial — the jury will not answer the all-important questions of whether or not they copied the iPhone's trade dress or infringed Apple's patents.

After Apple wrapped up its testimony earlier today, Samsung provided an hour-long argument for a judgement as a matter of law (JMOL), asking the judge to rule that Apple hadn't proved its case sufficiently, and that Samsung be allowed to walk out the door without mounting a defense.

Amongst other issues, Samsung argued that Apple hadn't provided a reason why the international Galaxy S, S II, or Ace should be included in the list of accused devices. All three products weren't offered for direct sale in the United States by Samsung or any of Samsung's subsidiaries — carriers received their own variants — and with the trial only covering devices sold in the US, the burden of proof was on Apple to argue why they should have been included in the first place. Koh agreed that Apple hadn't sufficiently proven why the international devices should be part of the case, and granted Samsung's motion to exclude them.

The trial started with Apple accusing more than 20 devices of infringement, so losing these three won't make or break its case — but Cupertino can't be happy.