Apple sues Google smartphone maker HTC over patent infringement

Apple has sued Google's Nexus One smartphone maker HTC, accusing it of infringing 20 Apple patents related to its popular iPhone.

Cupertino, California-based Apple filed a lawsuit yesterday concurrently with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and in the US District Court in Delaware against Taiwan-based HTC for infringing 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.

Although Apple, which has sold over 40 million iPhones worldwide. has not mentioned Google in the suit, HTC makes Google's smartphone Nexus One, launched by the search engine giant in January, (See: Google smartphone launch likely on Tuesday) and runs on Google's Android operating system.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO said in a statement, ''We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.''

Apple has filed over 200 patents related to the iPhone.

Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC, a member of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of handset manufacturers and mobile network operators dedicated to the advancement of the Android mobile device platform said, ''HTC values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations.''