The war of the smart phones its seems has now moved on from showrooms and retails outlets and has found a new battle ground, in the form of courtrooms. The manufacturer of the immensely famous iPhone, Apple Inc. has now filed a legal lawsuit against the Taiwanese handset manufacturer, HTC, alleging that the latter’s business practices amounted to 20 different patent infringements. The case has been filed with the office of the United States International Trade Commission and the United States District Court in Delaware and primarily focuses on the multi touch feature in HTC handsets, where Apple claims to be its sole owner.

However, many analysts and experts have come to believe that this lawsuit against HTC, is in reality a move by Apple against the rising popularity of Google and its Android mobile operating system, that the company has been distributing to numerous handset manufacturers and in a short time, the OS has gained extreme momentum. Google Android has long been seen as a near perfect alternative to the Apple iPhone OS and since Google enabled multi touch support on its flag ship smart phone, the Nexus One, it seems Apple might be feeling a bit threatened.

In a statement, Apple Inc. CEO, Steve Jobs said,

“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.”

Since the launch of the Google Android mobile operating system, there has been an intense competition between Google and Apple, in regards to the mobile device market, that many have come to believe will turn out to become the next step in personalized computing. According to Kevin Rivette (Patent lawyer),

“The lawsuit is the opening shot in a war. Apple is island-hopping, attacking first the Asian companies. Then it can go after Motorola, gradually whittling away at Google’s base. They want to break the Android tsunami.”

Via New York Times