Via Technologies, a designer of low-power microprocessors and controllers, on Thursday accused Apple, a maker of popular consumer electronics gadgets, of patents infringements. The lawsuit coincides with similar accusations by smartphone maker HTC, which has close ties with Via.

Via has filed a complaint with the U.S. international trade commission (ITC) and the U.S. district court of Delaware for patent infringement by Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV product lines and associated software. The chip designer did not specify its demands in the press release, but usually companies want to stop sales of products that use their intellectual property.

The Taipei, Taiwan-based designer of chips claims that all the devices based on Apple iOS operating system that are also powered by Apple’s own A4 and A5 chips infringe two of its patents. In particular, the patents at issue cover microprocessor functionality, namely “method and apparatus for double operand load” (6253312) and “instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data” (6253311 and 6754810).

“Via has built up an extensive IP portfolio consisting of over 5000 patents as a result of significant investments in world class technology research and development. We are determined to protect our interests and the interests of our stockholders when our patents are infringed upon,” said Wenchi Chen, chief executive officer of Via Technologies.

While officially Via Technologies protects its intellectual property, it should be noted that the chip designer is closely tied to smartphone designer and manufacturer HTC, which is amid a fierce legal action against Apple at the moment. The chairwoman of both HTC and Via Technologies is Cher Wang, who is also the wife of Wenchi Chen. Although the companies are currently separated, it is pretty clear that both fight Apple in favour of HTC in a bid to enable the latter to continue its winning spree on the handset market.

Tags: Via Technologies, Apple, HTC, iOS, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV