A new development in Apple's legal suit against Samsung has a federal court forcing Samsung to hand over samples of their new Android smart phones and tablets for Apple to examine.

The phones and tablets that Apple and Samsung are contending with are the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, Infuse 4G and Droid Charge. Of these devices only the Samsung Galaxy S2 has gone on sale in the UK and the Infuse 4G in the US. Only Apple's legal team will be allowed to see the products.

Apple's legal battle with Samsung has been a long and interesting affair. Apple filed complaint against Samsung in the U.S. last April 15 for allegedly copying the design of Apple's iPod and iPad. In the initial complaint, Apple alleged that Samsung had chosen to copy Apple's technology both in the design of Samsung's tablets and phones and user interfaces.

Samsung responded to the legal suit by filing its own suit the week after Apple. Samsung has three separate patent infringement suits in South Korea, Japan and Germany.

Recently San Jose Judge Lucy Koh has decided that Samsung's claims about the phones' being secret models didn't hold up to the company's action of giving away a Galaxy Tab 10.1 to 5,000 people at a recent Google I/O developer conference.

Koh said in last week's ruling that "the court notes that Apple has produced images of Samsung products and other evidence that provide a reasonable basis for Apple's belief that Samsung's new products are designed to mimic Apple's products,"

The expedited discovery is prompted by reports that Samsung plans to overhaul its Galaxy Tab 10.1 after the release of the iPad2, and a recent appearance on television by a Samsung executive who specifically referred to improving the Galaxy Tab to better compete with the iPad2.