The case HTC Europe Co v. Apple Inc was filed in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, in London, Bloomberg first reported. No other details were given in what appears to be the first European battle between the world's largest and world's fifth-largest cell phone manufacturer.
"It's obvious that Apple will strike down upon HTC with a vengeance in the UK and possibly several other countries," writes FOSS blogger and intellectual property consultant Florian Mueller in a new blog post. "Apple already has a lot of experience with intercontinental patent litigation."
On July 6, HTC acquired S3 Graphics for $300 million in order to add it to its patent portfolio. The following week, however, Apple won a patent battle of its own when the International Trade Commission said HTC may have infringed on two Apple patents.
The patent war between Apple and HTC started in March 2010. At the time, Apple sued HTC for 20 instances of patent infringement, all dealing with various elements of the iPhone. "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it," Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said at the time. "We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
In April, the ITC handed HTC and Nokia a victory in a key patent battle against Apple.