On Aug. 25, the in Germany. The injunction had initially banned imports of the tablet across the E.U., but the court later reduced its scope to cover only Germany. A final ruling in the case is expected on Sept. 9.

Samsung's lawyers must at least have anticipated the possibility that the court's ruling would apply to the smaller tablet too: The Galaxy Tab 7.7 demonstrated by Samsung staff following its launch on Thursday bore a prominent warning sticker: "Not for sale in Germany."

Dusseldorf is not the only place Apple and Samsung are fighting one another in the courts. On Aug. 24 of three Samsung smartphones after finding that they breached an Apple patent, while in Australia Samsung has postponed the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 pending the outcome of .

With additional reporting by Nick Barber of IDG News Service and Daniel Behrens of PC Welt.