Apple Inc. has asked to participate in an upcoming antitrust trial that will focus on Google LLCs practices in the search market.Reuters reported the request today, citing a court document filed on Monday.In August, a federal judge found that Google maintains an illegal monopoly across the search engine and search text advertising segments. One focus of the ruling was a set of agreements that the company maintains with handset makers. Under those contracts, the handset makers must set Google as the default search engine on their devices.Apple is one of the companies with which the Alphabet Inc. unit has inked such an agreement. According to Bloomberg, Google pays the iPhone maker billions of dollars per year as part of the contract. Those payments are part of the reason Apple plans to join the upcoming antitrust trial.The trial will determine how Google should change its business practices to comply with antitrust rules. The Justice Department, which is leading the litigation, will ask the court to scrap Googles default search engine agreement with Apple. This means that the iPhone maker would no longer receive payments from Google, which is what it could potentially avoid by joining the litigation.The Justice Department argues that the agreement should be scrapped because it disincentives Apple from building a competing search engine. In Mondays court filing, the iPhone maker stated that it wouldnt seek to compete with Google even if the contract were to end. Apple cited the enormous start-up resources involved in entering the general search market as one reason for its decision.During the trial, Apple hopes to present testimony from two or three witnesses along with relevant documents. The company explained that the decision to join the litigation is motivated by concerns Google can no longer adequately represent Apples interest. Apple is worried Google wont focus on their default search engine agreement because it will prioritize other aspects of the litigation.Plaintiffs proposed search distribution remedies are just one among manyissues Google now faces with other proposed remedies, such as divestment of Google Chrome, posing an even greater threat to Google, Apple explained. Google therefore is likely to prioritize and deprioritize certain of its defenses.Last week, Google offereda set of antitrust remedies that it positions as an alternative to the Justice Departments proposal. The search giant is offering to loosen its default search engine agreements by making them nonexclusive and allowing companies such as Apple to revisit their terms annually. At the same time, Google would keep paying the iPhone maker to keep its search engine the default option for iOS users.The trial is set to begin in April.Photo: UnsplashA message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content. Join our community on YouTubeJoin the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.TheCUBEis an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate thecontent you create as well Andy JassyTHANK YOU