A judge in Mannheim, Germany has delayed a proceedings in one of the numerous ongoing legal cases between Apple and Samsung. The case deals with Samsung’s alleged infringement of Apple’s patent on the slide-to-unlock feature on its iOS devices.

According to FOSS Patents, Andreas Voss, judge in the case, delayed the case in order to allow proceedings in the German Patent and Trademark Office to conclude. Those proceedings could result in Apple’s patent being revoked, which would mean an end to the case. The judge also expressed significant doubts about the intellectual property covered in the patent. A similar decision was reached in another patent case yesterday by the regional court in Munich.

These decisions represent a potentially significant setback for Apple in its attempts to prosecute the makers of several Android-based smartphones that supposedly infringe on the slide-to-unlock feature of Apple’s iOS devices.

Apple’s ongoing battle with Samsung shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon, though many of the cases are slowly managing to progress through the legal systems of several different countries. On Wednesday a court in the Netherlands ruled against Samsung in a separate case, declaring that Samsung had no grounds for legal action, due to Apple’s willingness to licence the patents in question on Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms.