14 DAY TRIAL // Cupertino-based Apple announced on Tuesday that it had filed a lawsuit against Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC, alleging that the handset vendor's devices infringe a number of 20 patents Apple holds at the moment. The company hasn't been specific in the press release announcing the lawsuit on the patents HTC infringes, but a look at the filing shows that Apple actually targets only the HTC devices that run under Google's Android operating system, suggesting that the lawsuit is not actually against HTC, but mostly against the Android platform.
Apple has filed its complaint both in U.S. District Court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the former is targeted at “certain mobile communication devices including cellular phones and smart phones, including at least phones incorporating the Android Operating System (collectively, “the Accused Products”),” as techcrunch notes. Moreover, the complaint filed with ITC names a series of devices which are the main offending products, including the Nexus One, Magic/myTouch 3G, Dream/G1, Hero, and Droid Eris.
Google is not named in the lawsuit, but, given the fact that HTC is the largest maker of Android-based handsets on the market today, it was only natural for the company to back up its partner, and the search engine-based giant specified this already, “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it,” the news site notes. Given the fact that the lawsuit mentions specifically HTC's Android devices, while leaving aside the Windows Mobile-based ones, it's clear that the entire Android ecosystem is put on notice, and Google should also be included in the equation.
Ever since Apple announced the lawsuit against HTC yesterday, there have been a lot of speculations regarding what triggered the move, and many suggest that Apple is feeling threatened by the impressive success Android has on the market today, and that Google's decision to turn on multi-touch support on Nexus One earlier last month would be the main reason. While available in other markets around the world, multi-touch was not present on Android phones in the US, and speculation on the matter suggested that Apple would be the reason for this, something that can be considered confirmed by the lawsuit filing.
However, this is only one of the patents Apple claims are being infringed. Other named patents refer to the manner in which a touchscreen device can be unlocked, to the power conservation on handsets, and more. The same as with the lawsuit filed against Nokia, Apple alleges that HTC's Android phones infringe its patents in user interface area, and those interested in learning all the details about them will find the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware here, and the complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission here. It should be interesting to watch the way in which things evolve, especially since Google won't back down.