Apple has claimed that the Taiwanese company has infringed 20 patents related to iPhone.

HTC, which manufactures mobile handsets and is behind the famous Google Nexus One, declined to comment on the case until it has investigated the details of the filing.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, issued a statement saying “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it.”

The suit claims that technology used in the iPhone interface, underlying hardware and architecture are all in fact Apple inventions. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours,” said Mr Jobs.

If successful, Apple’s action would result in HTC being banned from selling phones with the contentious features in the USA.

The action has been filed in a district court in Delaware and also at the US International Trade Commission. It joins Apple’s suit against Nokia, which is itself a countersuit to the Finnish giant suing Apple in October 2009. It is expected that all the legal actions will take some time to work their way through the courts.