LaptopMemo | Tech & Then Some

Apple is suing HTC for over 20 patents “related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.” After Apple sued Nokia, you though all was over, right? Wrong. And some of the charges are unbelievable. One of them is unlock gestures on an unlock screen. That would cover every single smartphone right now on the market. Apple is asking for a permant injuction wohich would bar HTC from selling its phones here in the U.S. The entire filing and press release is embedded for you after the break.

And guess what? There’s comment from Steve Jobs on this too:

“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.”

UPDATE: It looks like HTC didn’t even know of the case against them and have not even seen the lawsuit for themselves. Here’s their comment:

We only learned of Apple’s actions based on your stories and Apple’s press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

So far it seems that HTC is pretty confident. Giz and All Things D are really the only other blogs with the docs right now, since they’re not even in the court system yet. Once they do come out and are published for all to see, we’ll know exactly what Cupertino and Steve are actually suing for.

UPDATE 2: And here’s the lawsuit.

Apple vs HTC –

Essentially it’s the same type of lawsuit file against Nokia, and almost the same nasty comments on Palm, but which haven’t led Apple to sue them (yet). We’ll update this post as soon as we learn what exactly Apple sued HTC for.

Source: Giz

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