Perhaps, Apple fully believes that it reinvented mobile phone with the launch of its iPhone gadget several years ago and smartphone makers HTC and Nokia nowadays infringe its patents, however, HTC Corp. thinks differently. On Wednesday the company said that it had taken legal action against Apple by filing a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission 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. We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America at HTC.

HTC did not reveal which patents have been infringed by Apple.

Back in March Apple sued HTC of infringing twenty patents that cover user interface with multi-touch input. Back then it was indicated that Apple had general objections about Google Android mobile phone, which competes against Apple iPhone devices with proprietary operating system.

Google itself, which lead the development of Android operating system that powers Sense-based phones from HTC, said that it was definitely not a party of the legal fight between Apple and HTC, but it would stand behind Android as well as its partners. Considering the fact that Google’s own Nexus One is made by HTC, the search giant may indeed become a part of the legal action.

“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it,” an official from Google is reported to have said.

HTC also stated that it did not believe this lawsuit poses a short-term material impact to its business nor will it affect its Q1 2010 guidance.

Tags: Apple, HTC, Google, Android, iPad, iPod, iPhone