The battle between Apple and Samsung has been heating up in the past few weeks, but now both sides have been dealt their own disappointments, with handsets like the Galaxy Nexus remaining on sale in Germany, despite an attempt to ban them.

Apple and Samsung have been fighting one another over patent disputes and both have picked Germany as the current arena for combat. However, it seems that the German courts are unwilling to prevent either side from selling their wares in the highly profitable domestic market.

A judge found that Apple's patents were created after the technology found within both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices had been created, thus invalidating its claims of infringement, according to Bloomberg.

Apple has already been able to force Samsung to make some changes to the design of the Galaxy Tab by using court action, but an outright ban on the sale of its devices seems out of the plaintiff's reach in this instance.

What is perhaps most interesting about this tale is that Samsung and Apple can be butting heads over IP disputes on one side of the world and yet collaborating on hardware for upcoming devices on the other.

The iPhone 5 is likely to use at least some components from Samsung and the two companies seem content to scratch one another's backs at the development end of the spectrum, but when the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Nexus come close to impinging upon the sales of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S respectively, things are seen quite differently.

It will be intriguing to see whether the two companies are willing to push forward with their court tussles later in the year when the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Apple iPhone 5 are on the market. You could argue that by this point, Samsung has overtaken Apple in the hardware stakes, receiving rave reviews for last year's Galaxy S2 and generally reaching the market with its devices before the Californian firm has time to respond.

Samsung's competitive edge is likely to be the main reason that Apple is attempting to get its sixth iPhone handset out in the middle of 2012, rather than giving the iPhone 4S a full year on the market and launching in the autumn.

On the launch of the Galaxy S2 last year, Samsung ran a campaign which mocked the tendencies of iPhone fans to queue for hours in order to get the next Apple model, while missing out on all of the features and benefits of its Android-powered alternative.

The big screen and powerful, customisable software set the Galaxy S2 apart, while Apple reinstated a design that was more than a year old in 2011. 2012 is likely to see the iPhone re-imaged to a degree not seen before, which is definitely good news for Apple's sales figures.

However, until the Galaxy S3 is launched, there is no way of judging which company could get the upper hand. The only ones with influence are the judges in courts across the globe.