The mobile space is getting to be a nasty place! Apple sues HTC, Nokia sues Apple, HTC sues Apple – where will this end? You can read the press release after the jump. Also, check out HTC’s A Quietly Brilliant Story, which shows all of the firsts that they have been involved with over the years.

Seattle – May 12, 2010 – HTC Corporation today took legal action against Apple Inc., filing a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the United States.

“As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America, HTC Corporation. “We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.”

HTC’s commitment to innovation has continued for more than a decade as it has focused on building a portfolio of the world’s most advanced smartphones that are inspired by consumers and provide them with a variety of choices in software, design, form-factor, price and wireless carrier.  Today, consumers in the United States can choose between 12 HTC smartphones with the national wireless carriers.  HTC has continuously strived to bring innovative smartphone choices to consumers, like the recently unveiled HTC EVO 4G with Sprint, DROID Incredible by HTC with Verizon Wireless and the HTC HD2 with T-Mobile.  For more information on HTC’s long-standing commitment to consumers innovation and choice go to: www.htc.com/quietlybrilliant

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

There’s been a lot of focus on patents lately and it’s likely that this will only get worse as key players continue to battle for dominance in what will be the new computing frontier. Apple filed against HTC, HTC licensed a number of Microsoft patents, and HP buys Palm partly to gain control of Palm’s patents. Industry analysts are predicting that worldwide shipments of converged mobile devices (smartphones) will exceed 390 million by 2013. Because of that, all of the major players are working to position themselves in an attempt to control the lion share of the mobile market. Controlling the operating system used on those devices, or being the hardware manufacturer that produces the majority share of those 390 million devices will not only mean incredible revenues, but also a significant amount of power over the mobile industry – in much the same way Microsoft did with the PC many years ago.

So how does Nokia’s actions effect mobile users today? It doesn’t. This issue is before the court and will take years to resolve, and when it is resolved, most likely the court will order one company to pay the other company and maybe stop selling the devices. But that won’t effect those people that already have a device. So continue to enjoy your phone or buy that new one you’ve been looking at and don’t let all the patent fuss get in your way.

Now, HTC has responded to Apple’s claims stating that they disagree and will fully defend themselves. HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou comments “HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible”.

The press release highlights a number awards and firsts that HTC has achieved – First Windows PDA (1998), First Windows Phone (June 2002), First 3G CDMA EVDO Smartphone (October 2005), First gesture based smartphone (June 2007), First Google Android Smartphone (October 2008) and First 4G WIMAX Smartphone (November 2008). It’s still early in this battle, but HTC’s response is clear and to the point – they won’t be pushed around by Apple.

It’s going to be an interesting legal battle. Will Google get involved and try to legally aid their hardware partners and keep the adoption of Android devices growing? Apple’s approach of attaching HTC seems odd to me. A lot of what the patents talk about are related to Google’s implementation of the operating system and a number of those have been around long before those patents. If HTC wins, it could severely damage Apple’s image, although that’s been happening a lot recently, and spur more sales for Android. Of course, if Apple wins it could spell doom to Android devices in the US.