Apple accuses the Korean electronics giant Samsung for infringing on its intellectual property and have managed to get a German court to halt sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1–a decision that affects almost all EU countries.

The recent years have marked by heavy fighting in the IT industry over patents. Giants like Google, HTC, Apple, Samsung and Nokia have been throwing allegations of copyright infringement around liberally, which often results in complex litigation, counterclaims and costly settlements. April marked the start of the arguably most prominent feature: Apple accused Samsung of copying designs and other intellectual property from the iPhone and iPad.

Now a German court has decided that the Samsung Tablet Galaxy Tab 10.1 should banned from sale, which means that the product may no longer be sold and that any promotional activities mustbe stopped. Apparently this decision will be affecting the not only Germany but all EU countries except the Netherlands.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a popular tablet competing against the Apple iPad, but based on Nvidia’s Tegra platform 2 and Android 3.1 Honeycomb. It has particularly been noted for its unusually compact size with a thickness of only 8.6 millimeters and weight of 565 grams.

This is clearly a major setback for Samsung, both when it comes to the sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 and in the ongoing legal dispute with Apple.