For those who missed the latest patent infringement fiasco, Apple is suing HTC over 20 patents. The rivalry is heating up.

“Apple definitely means business in this recently filed lawsuit. In fact, they’re so determined to make a point here that they filed over 700 pages of exhibits in court. That’s not a lawsuit. It’s virtually a book in the making. Listed in the complaint are a variety of named HTC handsets ranging from the Nexus One to Imagio and from Dream/G1 to Droid Eris. It almost reads like a Lord of the Rings sequel,” indicated David Erikson, a Los Angeles trademark infringement attorney.

At the core of this lawsuit sits roughly 20 patents that date from 1995 through February 2010. “That’s a whole lot of ground that’s going to need to be covered, indicating this case may take forever and a day to settle. Or, it might wind up next month. It’s hard to tell with lawsuits like this one,” Erikson added. “From the way the complaints are worded, it’s my best guess that Apple is after Android as the center focus, and not so much HTC itself,” he pointed out.

“What is really interesting is that the older patents tend to focus more on operating system behaviors, which isn’t terribly relevant to HTC’s Android, and Google isn’t mentioned in the lawsuit – yet. But that may come later,” Erikson surmised. So it’s safe to say that the suit is more about Android than about the company who makes them, HTC. This is a bit odd, since Google and HTC were in bed together making the Android dream come alive.

Here is what the complaint filed in court takes aim at: “certain mobile communication devices, including cellular phones and smart phones, including at least phones incorporating the Android Operating System.” While this may sound like a shotgun approach to filing a lawsuit, when the stakes are as high as they tend to be in cases like this, it’s better to aim high.

The complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (yes, Apple is bringing out the artillery) specifically cites numerous HTC Android phones as the main offending products. The big guns are aimed at HTC, who makes the most Android handsets, but the subtext here is that Google should be on its toes as well.  Remember that Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board in 2009.

To learn more about David Alden Erikson, Attorney at Law, visit http://www.daviderikson.com.