Apple files lawsuit against HTC over iPhone patents [with legal docs]

Early this morning, Apple filed a lawsuit against the Taiwanese phone maker High Tech Computer (HTC) Corporation, alleging the company in infringing on more than 20 Apple owned patents in its mobile phones.

The lawsuit was filed in a U.S. District Court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade Commission today.

HTC is the maker of about 85-percent of all Windows Mobile powered devices, and also the maker of Google’s latest Android powered phone, the Nexus One.

 Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs today 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,” Mr. Jobs went on to say in the written statement, “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

HTC said today via a statement it has yet to be served any legal papers and that it learned about the lawsuit from the published Apple press release. The company said it plans to protect its patented technologies.

The patents in questions in the Apple vs HTC lawsuit have now been made public

• The ‘331 Patent, entitled “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States,” was duly and legally issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

• The ‘949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,” was duly and legally issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘949 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit B.

• The ‘849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” was duly and legally issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘849 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit C.

• The ‘381 Patent, entitled “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display,” was duly and legally issued on December 23, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘381 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit D.

• The ‘726 Patent, entitled “System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device,” was duly and legally issued on July 6, 1999 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘726 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit E.

• The ‘076 Patent, entitled “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices,” was duly and legally issued on December 15, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘076 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit F.

• The ‘105 Patent, entitled “GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality,” was duly and legally issued on December 8, 1998 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘105 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit G.

• The ‘453 Patent, entitled “Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor,” was duly and legally issued on June 3, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘453 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit H.

• The ‘599 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Graphic System,” was duly and legally issued on October 3, 1995 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘599 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit I.

• The ‘354 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods,” was duly and legally issued on July 23, 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘354 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit J.
Apple most recently on December 11, 2009, put a claim in motion alleging Nokia, the world’s largest phone maker, is infringing on 13 Apple patents. That claim was a result of an initial Nokia patent claim against Apple.

Most recently, Kodak Inc. has filed patent suits against Apple and other phone-makers alleging patent infringement with relation to camera phone patents.

Apple is seeking a permanent injunction to block HTC from continuing to sell the infringing phones in the United States, it also seeking damages and interest.

Apple to date has sold more than 40-million iPhones.

Apple complaint – ITC –

Apple complaint – Delaware –