An amicus curiae or amicus brief is when someone who is not a party in a lawsuit offers information that bears on the case but that has not been solicited by any of the parties. It’s used mostly as a way to make sure that various issues that wouldn’t otherwise come up are heard in court, in hopes against an overly broad legal ruling that might have widespread repercussions. Amicus curiae means “friend of the court.”

Got all that? Good. Maybe now you can understand Apple’s issue with Google trying to issue an amicus brief urging the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals to overrule Apple’s request for a sales ban on Samsung devices. Friend of the court? More like co-defendant.

Yesterday, Apple’s lawyers had harsh words to say about a joint amicus brief listing Google as lead party. Other companies listed in the brief are HTC, Red Hat, SAP and Rack Space and the overall jist was that courts shouldn’t allow sales bans of things like smartphones, just because they use “trivially patented features.”

Apple surprisingly had no issue with that point being heard, but Cupertino’s lawyers did point out the absurdity of Google, of all people, trying to claim they were an impartial party in all of this. They make the operating system Samsung’s phones use, and Samsung sells more Android phones than any other company on earth.

“Google is the developer of the Android operating system running on the Samsung smartphones that Apple seeks to enjoin in this case,” Apple wrote. “That interest conflicts with the traditional role of an amicus as an impartial friend of the court — not an adversary party in interest in the litigation.”

Here’s the entire document:

13-05-07 Apple Opposition to Google Et Al. Amicus Curiae Brief in Samsung Case by Florian_Muelle_439

As John Paczkowski rightfully notes, this is interesting because it’s the first time Apple has actually called out Google as an “adversary party.” Apple has taken pains so far not to attack Google, but here, they’re practically calling Google a conspirator.

So far, Apple has only gone after Android device makers… but Steve Jobs called the Android operating system itself “grand theft” and said he would spend all of Apple’s billions to right the wrong done to him by Android in what her termed a “thermonuclear” war. Clearly, Apple’s ultimate goal, then, is to destroy Android. Is this brief

• ViaAll Things D