Apple sues HTC for patent infringement (updated)

As reported earlier by ZDNet's own Larry Dignan, Apple announced that it is suing HTC for patent infringement. The lawsuit filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware alleges that HTC infringed on 20 of Apple's patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.

“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,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

TUAW notes that while the suit doesn't specifically mention Google or the Nexus One, HTC manufactures the N1, which is eating away at Apple's smartphone marketshare and is frankly, a better phone than the iPhone right now.

Did Apple just acknowledge that fact that Android is catching up (or even lapping) the iPhone?

Photo: TUAW

Also see: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ take and court documents (PDF).

Update: The complaint is embedded above. Some of the patents in questions are Patent Nos. 7,362,331, 7,479,949, 7,657,849, 7,469,381, 5,920,726, 7,633,076, 5,848,105, 7,383,453, 5,455,599, and 6,424,354.