Oct 12 (Reuters) - Google has asked a California federal

judge to pause his sweeping court order requiring it to open up

its app store Play to greater competition.

In a court filing on Friday night, Google said U.S. District

Judge James Donato's injunction order, which goes into effect on

Nov. 1, would harm the company and introduce "serious safety,

security, and privacy risks into the Android ecosystem."

The tech giant, a unit of Alphabet, asked Donato

to stay the order while it pursues an appeal.

The judge issued the injunction on Oct. 7 in a case brought

by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games, which persuaded a federal jury

last year that Google was illegally monopolizing how consumers

download apps on Android devices and how they pay for in-app

transactions.

The judge's order said Google must allow users within Play

to download competing third-party Android app platforms or

stores and can no longer prohibit the use of competing in-app

payment methods. It also bars Google from making payments to

device makers to preinstall its app store and from sharing

revenue generated from the Play store with other app

distributors.

If Donato denies Google's bid to put the injunction on hold,

the company can ask the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit

Court of Appeals to do so while it appeals the jury's underlying

antitrust verdict.

Google filed its notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit on

Thursday. The appeals court ultimately would be expected to

weigh and rule on Google's challenge to Donato's order.