The latest twist in a legal dispute between Apple and Samsung is a strange one: after a court fined Samsung for revealing confidential information about Apple, Samsung now says that Apple accidentally revealed that very same information about itself — and in an even more public fashion. The dispute centered on a licensing agreement between Apple and Nokia that Samsung's lawyers accidentally leaked to the company's employees. While a court found that this did happen, Samsung wants to see its fine reduced on the grounds that Apple apparently leaked those very same documents too.

Apple may have published confidential information multiple times

Samsung says that Apple published the licensing agreement in a public docket back in October and left it there for about four months. During that time, Apple is said to have published other confidential agreements too, including some dealing with Google and Samsung itself. Apple apparently discovered that it had done this and removed the documents after an investigation last month. "Apple's repeated disclosure of [confidential business information] warrants some investigation," Samsung writes in a motion.

Apple is allegedly refusing to provide information on its investigation into the matter, and Samsung is now pressing the court to make it reveal more. With the right information, Samsung may well end up with a solid argument that the court should reduce its fine for the accidental disclosure. In the end though, this dispute is still just a small battle in a larger patent war between the two companies — and it's starting to look like neither will walk out of this one as the true winner.