According to Judge Paul Grewal, it seems Samsung is guilty of violating a protective order that was issued by court to prevent certain documents from reaching the public.

The documents that were leaked pertained to patent licensing agreements that Apple had with Sharp, Philips, Ericsson and Nokia, and the patents were supposed to be confidential. The documents were put in the hands of Samsung employees for legal counsel in the case of the patents only, and were to be only used in this capacity.

Unfortunately for Samsung there was a “little” leak and the documents somehow fell into the hands of of 90 of its employees, as well as over a hundred lawyers who were not authorized to view them. According to Apple, this provided Samsung with an advantage that others did not have.

Nokia has also joined Apple in this fight against Samsung, and Judge Grewal is looking to the two companies to come up with ideas on a suitable punishment for the leak.

[via The Verge, Court Documents, image via thetaxhaven’s flickr]