Apple and Google are involved in a number of lawsuits pertaining to various patents. Apple has a lawsuit pending against Samsung in California which also includes a motion for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Apple contends for some reason or another that the source code for Android and the source code for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus are different. Indeed there are going to be things differences between the code posted on source.android.com.
Google give reason that Google doesn’t want to give Apple any more information than it needs. Google gives in order to avoid fulfilling this request. Google lawyers made it clear that this is the same way that the iPhone source code was treated in a previous iPhone antitrust case (quoting the official ruling: “because the iPhone source code is a trade secret, plaintiffs have the burden to establish that it is both relevant and necessary.”). Google says that complying with “Apple’s request would reveal critical Google trade secrets”, adding that “the internal functionality of Android running on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Google’s trade secret.” This is especially odd because of course the source code is available for the Galaxy Nexus, so it’s hard to imagine what “internal functionality” it is that Google is trying to protect.
We contend that if the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that is posted to the Android website isn’t the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, than what is it?
