The latest round of legal exchanges in the Apple vs. Samsung legal saga sees things moving into the ‘I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours’ arena.

 

First Apple got a federal court to force Samsung to provide it with samples of prototype models of devices, including its forthcoming Galaxy SII smartphone and new Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet PCs.

 

This was done so that Cupertino-based company’s lawyers could assess if these should also be included in its lawsuit against Samsung, as well as determine whether Apple should file a motion to block these from the market.

 

Samsung had to provide these to Apple’s legal team who’ll get to peruse these, but no one else from Apple will be allowed to view these pre-production mobile devices though.

 

According to This is my next, Samsung has now also filed a motion with the US District Court in San Jose, California, that will require Apple to fork over the next version of the iPhone and the iPad as part of the discovery process. These haven’t even been announced yet which is why Samsung’s lawyers refer to these as the “iPhone 4S” or "iPhone 5" and "iPad 3" or "third generation iPad."

 

The motivation behind this move is for Samsung’s lawyers to assess any possible similarities between their smartphones and tablets in question and Apple’s forthcoming products, in order to prepare for further potential legal action from Apple.

 

The saga kicked off when Apple sued Samsung for alleged patent- and copyright violations within the Korean manufacturer’s Galaxy line-up of smartphones as well as tablet PCs. This led to Samsung filing a countersuit against the iPhone and iPad maker, with some legal action of its own.