Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ordered to reveal to Samsung details of settlement with HTC

This should have Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) fuming.

A U.S. court has ordered Apple that it should reveal to Samsung Electronics, the details of a settlement reached with HTC Corp relating to a patents dispute between the two companies.

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Korea's Samsung had filed a petition with the court that Apple should disclose the details of its settlement that it had reached with HTC on November 10.

These details have been kept under wraps by Apple, which is very obsessive about its privacy and dislikes giving out information.

In August Apple had won a legal suit against Samsung, after a U.S. jury found the Korean handset maker guilty of copying Apple devices and violating several of its patents.

Apple is seeking a ban on the sale of Samsung devices in the United States.

For Samsung details about which of the patents have been covered in the Apple-HTC deal is important as it would be useful in its efforts to block Apple’s attempts to impose a permanent ban on the sale of its products.

The Asian company has argued it is "almost certain" that the HTC deal covers some of the same patents involved in its own litigation with Apple, a Reuters report said.

Following Samsung's appeal, the court has ordered the iPhone maker to provide a full copy of the settlement agreement subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation.

Apple and HTC recently ended entered into a settlement and ended their worldwide litigation that was the starting point of the patent wars that now has engulfed the entire world of mobile technologies.