Apple sued HTC for patent infringement

Today, Apple has filed a lawsuit against HTC for violating about 20 patents related to the user interface, architecture, and iPhone hardware.

Quote from Steve Jobs from the press release (in free translation):

We can sit and watch how competitors steal our inventions, or we can do something about it. We decided to do something about it. We believe that competition is great, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.

Another quote:

Apple re-invented the mobile phone in 2007, introducing the revolutionary iPhone, and did it again in 2008, using the groundbreaking App Store, which now offers more than 150,000 mobile applications, in more than 90 countries. Worldwide, more than 40 million iPhones have been sold.

Read the press release here .

A natural question arises: until? How long will Apple restrain progress with its patents?
')
Update : Here you can find a list of patents.

The patents listed in the lawsuit filed in Delaware State District Court:

• Patent # 7,362,331 : “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States”
• Patent # 7,479,949 : “Touch Screen Device, Delaying Commands By Applying Heuristics”
• Patent # 7,657,849 : “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image”
• Patent # 7,469,381 : “List of Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display”
• Patent # 5,920,726 : “A Digital Camera Device.”
• Patent # 7,633,076 : “Automated Response Of User Activity In Portable Devices”
• Patent # 5,848,105 : “GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality”
• Patent # 7,383,453 : “Conserving Power By The Processor Of A Processor”
• Patent # 5,455,599 : “Object-Oriented Graphic System”
• Patent # 6,424,354 : “Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods”

Patents listed in a lawsuit filed with the International Trade Commission (ITC):

• Patent # 5,481,721 : Method For Providing Programming
• Patents # 5,519,867 and # 6,275,983 : Object Oriented Multitasking System and Object-Oriented Operating System
• Patent # 5,566,337 : for the operating system
• Patent # 5,929,852 : Encapsulated network entity of a network component system
• Patent 5,946,647 : computer generated data
• Patent # 5,969,705 : Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program
• Patent # 6,343,263 : Real-time signal processing system
• Patent # 5,915,131 : I / O requests utilizing I / O service

Update from Chater : Two suits in pdf:
http://docs.docstoc.com/orig/780373/4484decf-19b7-434c-841e-08c4d274b956.pdf
http://docs.docstoc.com/orig/780373/032932b8-f17d-469b-b722-f183e72f94a8.pdf

Update : It is more likely that this lawsuit is directed not so much against HTC, as against Android OS in general: