Snapshot from the Google Store
FORTUNE — Last Wednesday, Google (GOOG) gave the 6,000 developers attending its annual I/O conference free copies of the Galaxy Nexus — a touchscreen smartphone jointly developed by Google and Samsung.
Three days later, a federal judge granted Apple (AAPL) a preliminary injunction against the same device, ruling that Cupertino’s lawyers had made a persuasive case that the phone infringed at least one Apple patent and possibly three more.
As a result, Google has had to remove the Galaxy Nexus from its online store — replacing the IN STOCK notice with one reading COMING SOON — an odd message for a device that customers have been buying since November 2011.
Meanwhile, Google says it has developed a software patch to get around the contended patents, according to All Things Digital‘s Ina Fried, and plans to push it out “imminently.”