Earlier this year, the Apple versus Adobe slap fight over Apple's smack-talk about Flash and Adobe's retaliatory sniping fast became one of our favorite spectator sports. However, with all of the hooplah over both company's latest product launches and financial successes has made the feud moot. Fortunately, thanks to a bit of investigative reporting on the part of Wired, we've learned that the hard feelings between the two companies are still alive and well.  

Recently, Wired received a communique from the Federal Trade Commision, under the Feedom of Information Act, for a 200-page complaint filed by Adobe against Apple regarding the Cupertino-based company's iOS SDK rules. You may recall that Steve Jobs, whose dislike of Flash is now near legendary, is also none too fond of third-party development tools.

With two of Adobe's properties in Jobs' crosshairs, including Flash and some of the application development elements inherent in Adobe CS5, it's no wonder that the Silicon Valley-based company opted to file a complaint. It wasn't until Wired's request for the document was turned down, and in a letter from the Federal Trade Commision no less, that the significance of Adobe's complaint became clear.  It's one thing to have the government deny you documents. It's quite another to have them state that the documents they're keeping from you are exempt because "disclosure of that material could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission’s law enforcement activities."

Uh oh.

The statement, while vague, is still quite telling. As Electronista is quick to point out, the Federal Trade Commission's refusal of disclosure can most likely only mean one thing: An investigation into Apple's trade practices is currently underway.

We'll keep you posted on this one as the story develops.