HTC says everything Apple makes infringes on three of its patents

Tuesday evening, Taiwanese smartphone maker and long-time Android supporter HTC announced it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. District Court of Delaware and also a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).

HTC alleges infringement of three patents by Apple's Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod product lines in the areas of Wi-Fi profiling, and PDA/Cellular functionality in a handheld device.

In the District court of Delaware, there are three other cases involving HTC and Apple currently on the books: two suits filed last year, and one filed just one month ago.

The suit in July was filed by Apple against HTC, and involved four patents generally associated with "portable electronic devices, including but not limited to cellular phones, smartphones, and tablet computers, together with software designed for use on, and intended to be loaded onto such devices."

But HTC's suit this week pulls out all the stops and says literally everything Apple makes or imports ("personal computers, mobile communications devices, wireless printers, streaming wireless capable television, wireless network equipment, portable digital music and video players, related communications software, applications, and digital media and related services") infringes on three of its patents: #7,765,414; #7,672,219; and #7,417,944.

"We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones," said Grace Lei, general counsel, HTC Corporation. "This is the 3rd case before the ITC in which Apple is infringing our intellectual property. Apple needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its products."