Apple Sues HTC

Whispers of Steve Jobs’s short temper have emerged from Apple headquarters for years, but his strongly worded statement on his company’s pending lawsuit against HTC takes it to another level. The CEO said that Apple can either “sit by and watch companies steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it.” That “something” is a court case which alleges that HTC–the maker of the first phone that featured Google’s Android operating system and also manufacturer of Google’s own Nexus One–infringed on 20 Apple patents. The patents include hardware and software technology, and Apple’s famous “multi-touch” technology is among the features which are suspiciously popping up on HTC models. Specific phones that Apple named include the aforementioned “Google phone,” T-Mobile’s G-1, and the myTouch 3G, and not all phones listed run Google’s OS. Apple has asked the court to award it damages and block the U.S. sales of the HTC products it deems to be in violation. A spokeswoman for HTC said that the company has not had time to review Apple’s claims, and that Apple had not contacted HTC (the latter only learned of the trial in media reports). In a sneaky twist, one industry analyst thinks that Apple waited for more and more HTC phones to come out before filing suit. The more models that have infringed on Apple’s patents, the more money the giant stands to recoup in the end.