The billboard promoting Zen Magnets at 2142 Welton St. Denver, Colorado. Zen Magnets now selling its magnetic balls at marijuana dispensaries and head shops. (Hyoung Chang, Denver Post file)

Denver-based Zen Magnets has won a temporary stay against a federal regulation that would ban the sale of tiny magnetic balls.

The ban was scheduled to take effect April 1, but under a challenge filed by Zen, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday issued a stay.

The court ordered the Consumer Product Safety Commission to file a response on the stay motion by April 14.

"It's far from time to post the 'mission accomplished' banner, but this is a giant and tangible indicator of momentum," said Zen Magnets founder Shihan Qu.

Zen Magnets is the last surviving major magnetic-ball company. The other large player, Buckyballs, stopped sales in 2012 and recently agreed to establish a trust fund to cover the costs of recalling its product.

The BB-size magnetic spheres can be molded together in sculptures or artistic designs.

But the CPSC maintains that the magnets are dangerous. The agency cites nearly 3,000 incidents of children swallowing the 5-millimeter balls during a five-year period from 2009 through 2013. Some of the accidents required emergency surgery because if two or more balls are swallowed, they can bind intestinal tissue together.

Qu said he is not currently selling magnets because he's not sure how long the temporary stay will remain in effect, and because he can't predict how the court will ultimately rule on his challenge to the CPSC's ban.

Zen Magnets also is battling the safety agency on a related case over the CPSC's proposed order requiring Zen to recall the magnet sets already sold.

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Denver's Zen Magnets wins stay against federal ban on magnetic balls