Well, that’s interesting. What some already speculated has now been confirmed by Reuters: Apple’s ‘victory‘ in Germany turns out to be remarkably hollow. While Samsung Germany may no longer sell or advertise the Galaxy Tab 10.1, this ban does not cover anybody else. So, retailers will still be able to sell the device – including purchasing new stock from other Samsung branches.

Some people already speculated this was the case when the news of the injunction hit the web yesterday. We knew the injunction only covers the local German branch of Samsung, but it was unknown how this would affect inventory and selling options for retailers. As it turns out, it’s not much of a problem for retailers who want to keep selling and restocking the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Not only are retailers allowed to sell existing stock (so, they won’t be taken off the shelves as Apple demanded in the Dutch case), they are also allowed to restock the device – as long as they don’t purchase it from Samsung’s German branch. In other words, Samsung’s Korean branch can sell the device, or they can restock from other local branches in Europe.

Media Markt, for instance, one of the largest electronics retailers which operates in both Germany and The Netherlands, could easily circumvent the ban by routing everything through The Netherlands. Media Markt told Reuters it doesn’t yet know how the ban will impact their business. Samsung itself, too, could probably make a few administrative changes to route all shipments to Germany through something other than the German branch.

So, it would seem that this victory is mostly symbolic in nature, which is good news for German consumers – their choices won’t be limited because Apple is afraid of competition.