An Australian judge has recently ordered Apple to make the iPhone 4S firmware source code available to Samsung, reports The Verge, in order to verify whether Apple is violating patents owned by the company.
Samsung filed a request for the code late last month, and will be using the code in order to investigate possible patent infringements. The vergo notes that this ruling isn’t surprising, since this is really the only way to thoroughly investigate infringement claims of this type.
While Samsung has been granted their request for the source code, its unlikely that this will have long-term implications for the ongoing dispute between Apple and Samsung. Samsung will not be allowed to keep the code, and is only allowed to use the information for investigative purposes.