Apple blasts HTC again in new legal fight

Apple is having another crack at HTC. The makers of the iPhone and iPad claim its rival, maker of the HTC Desire S and HTC Sensation, is infringing a new raft of patents.

Apple has filed a complaint against HTC with the US International Trade Commission this week. The company started by Steve Jobs is asking the ITC to stop HTC from selling phones in the US. HTC fired back that it is "dismayed that Apple has resorted to competition in the courts rather than the marketplace".

Apple reckons HTC has breached five patents in this new dispute, some of which are held by Apple itself. The patents involve application interfaces, list scrolling, document scaling and rotation, touchscreen interfaces for use in a car, a double-sided touch-sensitive panel and a BT patent for using a pen with a portable computer.

Apple has named a list of HTC's last generation of phones in the claim, including the HTC Wildfire, HTC Desire, and the venerable HTC Hero. Jobs' mob also takes issue with the the 7-inch HTC Flyer tablet.

It's not the first time Apple and HTC have tussled: a previous dispute over 20 patents is scheduled for trial in early August. The fruity phone-flinger has also challenged Nokia in the courts.

Many of Apple's disputes relate to the way you use the phone's software, like multi-touch gestures, but the company is yet to challenge Google over its Android software. Instead, the company seems to have nicked Android's better notification system for iOS 5, the the next generation of Apple's mobile software.

Apple is also locked in a legal scrap with Samsung, claiming the Korean giant has copied everything from the design of its phones and tablets to the packaging they come in.

Are phone manufacturers copying each other? Does Steve Jobs have a denim-clad leg to stand on? Keeps the lawyers busy, we suppose. If they weren't pulling each others' hair over this kind of nonsense, think of the damage they could do.