Search engine outfit Google is furious with the law firm it has been using since 2008.

Pepper Hamilton has been the trusted ally of Google in court, but it turns out that the outfit started hiring itself out to a patent licensing business that sued Google's Android partners. What has got Google's goat is that m'learned friends at Pepper Hamilton never told them it that it was hired by Digitude Innovations in a case involving handset makers.

Being sued by Digitude is in fact HTC and Samsung Electronics, who are Google's best chums and the search engine thinks that Pepper Hamilton should not be allowed to continue with the infringement against the products and interests, for its existing clients. Pepper Hamilton has been hired to apply for patents related to its Android mobile operating system, so Google feels that the outfit is being unfaithful. Bloomberg claims that the search engine is worried that confidential data it shared creates conflicts of interests, in the Digitude case.

It is starting to look like the world is so full of patent litigation there is not enough lawyers to go around. Pepper Hamilton is still trying to get more than 50 patents for Google including 12 directed at Android .