Apple accuses HTC of violating 20 patents

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Apple circulated a press release claiming a Taiwanese company HTC about violating 20 patents. The official press release quotes Steve himself:

We can sit and watch how competitors steal our patented inventions, or can do something about it. We decided to take action. We believe that market competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own unique technologies, and not steal our

Well, the statement in such an ultimatum can be considered as the recognition of HTC. Steve and earlier allowed himself harsh statements, but given the fact that HTC has been developing communicators for many years, surely they will have a couple of hundreds of patents in the sleeve. Also recall that the TouchFlo interface was introduced earlier than the first iPhone.
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Representatives of engadget contacted HTC, and received a response:

We only became aware of Apple’s intentions from the press release. The court document has not yet been served, so we cannot comment on the charges yet. We respect the value of patent rights, but we also want to protect our own innovations. We invent and patent our own technologies for more than 13 years.

Apple has prepared more than 700 pages with a description of the claims, and also provided a list of specific HTC models that fall under the distribution, among them Nexus One, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro2, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream / G1, myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, Droid Eris.

Apple focuses on devices with Android and Sense UI on board, a short list of pritenzy: use gestur to unlock the device, the algorithm for correcting user input, as well as a number of functionality that HTC used when building the interface.

Source: Engadget

Short list of patents:

• The 331 331 Patent, entitled “Non-Constant Translated By User Interfaces”, was issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• The '949 Patent Touch Screen Device, Method for Designing and Distributing Competencies for Applying Heuristics' issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the '949 Patent attached hereto as Exhibit B.
• The 49 849 Patent, entitled “On the Unlock Image,” was issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the '849 Patent attached hereto as Exhibit C.
• The '381 Patent List, The Scrolling And The Translating Document, The Scaling, And The Rotation On The Touch-Screen Display, ”was 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 72 726 Patent Statement, A Digital Camera Device, issued issued issued issued issued issued issued issued issued issued issued issued issued A copy of the '726 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit E.
• The '076 Patent, issued in April of 2009, issued 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 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, "It was a 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 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 Quotation for the Interests And Methods, "It has been legally issued on July 23, 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the '354 Patent attached hereto as Exhibit J.