Hot on the heels of an ITC decision to hear more of Apple's patent complaints against HTC, it's been revealed that a German court has granted Apple a preliminary injunction that blocks Samsung from distributing or advertising the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in all of the countries of the European Union, save for the Netherlands. Florian Mueller at FOSSPatents has said that Apple has filed a similar suit against Samsung in the Netherlands. The news originally came to German news agency dpa from sources involved in the battle between Apple and Samsung. Apple asked the district court of Düsseldorf, Germany, to order an injunction against Samsung and its tablet, which includes fines of up to $350,000 for each violation or imprisonment of Samsung executives if the infringement continues.

Earlier this month we saw Samsung push back the Tab 10.1's launch in Australia due to an injunction awarded to Apple by the local courts. We've yet to see any sort of injunction issued here in the U.S., but the ITC recently confirmed that it will be looking into the matter between Apple and Samsung to determine whether or not an injunction is needed. It's not clear when we'll see a decision from the ITC on the matter, but in the mean time the situation abroad seems to be getting worse for Samsung.

UPDATE: For those wondering, Florian Mueller points out that Apple's injunction here is based on the fact that it feels the Tab 10.1 infringes on the iPad's design. This particular injunction does not involve hardware or software patents.

Via MobileBurn, FOSSPatents, dpa