Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the company could "sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it." So, he added, Apple decided "to do something about it."

Android and Windows Mobile Devices

The complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware and at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, as well as a court order to prevent HTC from selling Android-based phones and other devices in the U.S. HTC made the first phone based on Google's Android open-source operating system, the G1, as well as Google's own Nexus One.

Although "phones incorporating the Android Operating System" are mentioned by name in the complaint, exhibits in the case include both Android and Windows Mobile devices. In addition to the Nexus One and the G1, they include the Droid Eris, the Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro2, and the Imagio.

A spokesperson for HTC said the company only learned of the lawsuits through media reports and that, while it "values patent rights and their enforcement," it will defend its technology.

The patents cited by Apple include one for "Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation of User Interface Objects," a 2009 patent for "Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics," and another for "Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image."

Other patents mentioned relate to list scrolling, document scaling and rotation on a touchscreen display, managing power in a digital camera, sensing user activity, signal processing, power conservation for a processor, an object-oriented graphic system, and an event-notification system. In all, 10 patents are in contention.

'Sue-Happy'

As the number of mobile devices rapidly increases, and as certain successful approaches to technology and user interface become commonplace, patent lawsuits are increasing. Apple itself, for instance, is dealing with a lawsuit from Nokia over technology, and Motorola is suing Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry. Last month, Eastman Kodak filed suit against both Apple and RIM over digital image technology used in the companies' products.

"People are sue-happy," noted Sean Ryan, an analyst with industry research firm IDC. He added that IT departments "shouldn't worry much" about investing in any of the mobile devices whose technology is being challenged in court.

"I haven't seen where an injunction to prevent sales has actually gone through," Ryan said. If it ever got to that point in the Apple-HTC case, he said, "HTC will settle."
 

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