Apple accuses HTC of iPhone tech theft (again)

Apple is pressing on with its scorched earth patent offensive against HTC, adding at least one new technology to its list of patents allegedly being infringed by the mobile phone manufacturer.

In a complaint filed Monday, Apple accused HTC of infringing Patent Nos. 6,282,646 and 7,380,116. Although they are two separate patents, they both cover a “system for real-time adaptation to changes in display configuration” and appear to contain identical claim language and involve the same inventors.

The complaint, filed in US District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, also alleges the infringement of Patent Nos. 7,383,453 and 7,657,849, which were included in a suit Apple brought against HTC in early March.

The abstract of the new patents reads:

A hot-plugging capability for video devices is achieved by shifting the responsibility for recognizing changes in the configuration of a display environment from a computer's operating system to a device manager. When an input/output device is added to or removed from the computer system, an interrupt signal informs a device manager of the fact that a change in configuration has occurred.

In response thereto, the device manager determines whether the changed component relates to the computer's display function. If so, the device manager makes a call to the computer's display manager, to inform it of the fact that the display configuration has changes.

In response to this call, the display manager reconfigures the display space for the computer system and notifies clients as appropriate, to accommodate display features associated with the added component. With this change in the configuration of the display space, the added component becomes immediately available for use.

Apple's press release from March said 20 patents were included in its initial complaint, but I was able to find only 10 of them. In May, HTC struck back with its own patent suit against Apple. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Taiwanese handset maker strikes back again.