Tech giant Apple has been ordered by a U.S. court to release its financial data, CNET reported last Friday. Apple twice asked the court to protect the information, but to no avail.

Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California wrote in her order, "As Apple appears to have realized in introducing that exhibit, it cannot both use its financial data to seek multi-billion dollar damages and insist on keeping it secret... The public's interest in accessing Apple's financial information is now perhaps even greater than it was at trial."

She ordered Apple to disclose unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data of the iPhone.

Apple is likely to fight the order tooth and nail, so it will probably be referred to a federal appeals court. Experts say the chances are that the appeals court will also refuse to seal Apple's financial documents, since they are essential to calculating the astronomical damages Apple is demanding from Samsung.

"Apple won its recent U.S. patent case against Samsung, but the company may have to pay a price by revealing key profit details about the iPhone," CNET said.