Apple strikes another win against its rival Samsung after a German court banned the company from selling its new Galaxy Tab 10.1, because it looked too much like Apple's iPad.

A court in the German City of Düsseldorf upheld a preliminary decision that the tablet could not be sold after Apple filed an injunction at the beginning of August.

Samsung have appealed the ruling again and could take the case to a higher regional court in Düsseldorf, which could potentially lift the preliminary injunction in a matter of months according to blogger Florian Mueller, pcmag reported.

Judge Brueckner-Hofmann said that copying Apple isn't necessary in order to create a functional tablet, and that even the informed customer might get the impression that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks just like Apple's iPad. The court is of the opinion that Apple's minimalistic design isn't the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible, Brueckner-Hofmann said, Bloomberg reported.

The ban has only been administered in Germany and will not have an effect on the sale of the tablet in other European countries.

The decision comes at a time of patent war between Google's Android operating system that Samsung's tablet uses and Apple's operating system for the iPhone and iPad.

The war has been characterized by Google as a bid to strangle Android, which is now the most popular mobile phone operating system.

Google has accused Apple of buying up old patents in an attempt to impose a licensing fee tax on every Android handset and make such devices more expensive for consumers.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is slightly thinner than the iPad 2. The 10.1 Tab has a PLS display with WXGA (1280×800) display. It is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and packs 1GB of RAM. The back of the tab features a 3MP camera with Auto-Focus and an LED flash, while there is a 2MP camera in the front for video calling.

The GPS with A-GPS, Bluetooth, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Ambient Light Sensor and a 3.5mm audio jack are all present. The tablet supports HSPA+ for speeds of up to 21Mbps.

It has dual -Wi-Fi antennas and supports both 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands. The battery life of the tablet runs 10 hours of video playback. It runs on Android 3.0 Honeycomb with Samsung's TouchWIZ 4.0 UI on top of it. The 16GB Wi-Fi version costs $499 while the 32GB version costs $599.

Iphone Court Germany Germany