Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against HTC Corporation (formerly High Tech Computer Corporation) today for infringing on twenty of its patents. According to an Apple press release, the patents in question involve the iPhone’s “user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware.”

“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,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

As you may recall, several days ago at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting, Steve Jobs told shareholders that Apple’s $25 billion war chest would allow Apple to take “big, bold” risks in the future. In light of today’s events, we have to ask ourselves, “do these risks involve suing other companies in order to maintain smartphone hegemony?”

Apparently over 700 pages of legal jargon were submitted to both the US District Court in Delaware as well as the US International Trade Commission. Now, I’m no lawyer, but I’m guessing that it’s going to be quite some time before we hear anything definitive regarding the outcome of this suit.

Engadget has posted an in-depth breakdown of the twenty patents in question, check it out here

Read the lawsuit filed through the US District Court in Delaware here (Courtesy of Engadget)

[Engadget]