Apple loves to fuel the fire as much as any company that thinks their ideas were taken or “infringed” as they like to put it. The U.S. International Trade Commission has launched an investigation on HTC for its involvement on a patent infringement case brought upon it by Apple. As we know Apple is claiming that about 20 patents have been in use over at the Taiwanese phone maker’s plant. They are asking the ITC to bar all sales of HTC devices in the US until the suit has been resolved or dismissed.
The ITC said that one of its administrative law judges will hold an evidentiary hearing to look into Apple’s complaint. The ITC now has 45 days to set a target date for completing the investigation.
Since the release of the iPhone there have been many copy cats that have gotten C&D orders but no suites filed. Speculators believe this is Apples attempt at going after Google for its Android operating system. Android has been creeping up on the popularity of the iPhone since it debut with the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1. The reason why some think so is Apples latest move to sue companies of importance in the mobile industry like Nokia. Nokia has been leading the smartphone world for quite some time and Apple is suing them for – guess what – patent infringement.
Stay tuned ladies and gents. This is bound to become a circus…
via: PCWorld
WeRAndroid.com 
FEAR. That’s right Steve we smell it and you know what? It smells GOOD. So now go try and pull a MS and litigate instead of innovate. I can’t wait for those empty patents to get thrown out for prior art or blatant obviousness.