Chicago judge grants Apple access to Android development history

The patent battle between Apple and Samsung has seemingly taken a back seat to the iPhone-maker’s worldwide war with Motorola Mobility. Apple knows that with Google acquiring MMI, it can finally take its beef with Android straight to Mountain View.

Google has so far managed to stay out of the many different patent wars involving its mobile OS and manufacturing partners — but that won’t last for long. Reports are coming in today that Apple has just been granted access to Android’s development history…

Bloomberg reports:

“Google Inc. and a Motorola Mobility Hildings Inc. unit were ordered by the U.S. judge presiding over an Apple Inc. patent lawsuit to turn over information about the development of Google’s Android operating system. The Motorola Mobility unit and Google must also hand over to Apple information about Google’s pending $12.5 billion acquisition of the mobile-phone maker, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner in Chicago ruled yesterday…

…”The Android/Motorola acquisition discovery ishighly relevent to Apple’s claims and defenses,” Apple’s attorneys’ said in a March 2 filing requesting the judge’s order.”

This is big news for the folks in Cupertino. Apple has been in and out of court rooms over the past two years and has spent more than $100 million dollars in litigation trying to prove that Android is a stolen product. And now, it finally has the chance to see for itself.

With Google now in control of a majority of MMI’s assets, including its patents, we expect things to get much worse between the handset-maker and Apple, before they get any better.

[MacRumors]