On Tuesday Apple filed complaints with both the U.S. International Trade Commission and a federal court in Delaware seeking to stop the import, sales and use of some phones made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. The complaint suggests that HTC has infringed on patents owned by Apple with a number of their mobile handsets, all which rely on Google’s Android operating system.

The mobile devices in question include the Pro Touch, TouchPro 2, Touch Diamond, myTouch 3G, Tilt II, Pure, Imago, T-Mobile G1, Hero, Droid Eris, HD2 and of course Google’s own Nexus One which was also made by HTC. As many as 10 of the 20 accused violations involve the Nexus One, which brings up some speculation. Since Apple is targeting Android-based mobile devices with HTC, they could be gearing up to go after Google directly with the Android operating system. Not all of the patent infringement complaints by Apple involve the Android OS, however.

Apple has announced that it is filing a lawsuit against HTC over the alleged infringement of about 20 patents that cover critical aspects of touch phones, like hardware, software and touch-display control. Some question whether the lawsuit is actually meant to send Google a message. But maybe it’s against the entire smartphone industry and it’s just Apple showing their teeth.

Apple should probably be more worried about Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 Series since it has such a nice user interface and all. Basically it’s just business as usual as everybody tries to gain some breathing room in this turf war.

Attorneys for Apple have initiated a legal response against the largest supermarket chain in Australia. At issue is a logo that Apple says is too similar to its own trademark. You can judge for yourself, but I think Apple is way out of line on this one.

It all began when Woolworth’s Supermarkets announced in August 2008 that it would refresh its corporate branding strategy with a new logo. The Australian company hasn’t mentioned apples at all in relation to the new logo. They claim that the stylized ‘W’ has been paired with “an abstract leaf symbol” to represent fresh food. But it didn’t take long for others to note its similarity to an actual apple.

A New York District Court judge on Thursday announced the delay of the Google Book Search hearing and instead will hold a status conference on the scheduled October 7th date. Google Book Search is a settlement case that has been pending for more than four years between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. The deal would allow Google to digitize millions of out-of-print, coprighted books and make them available for sale to readers online. The authors and publishers of the books would share in sales and advertising profits.

The delay from judge Denny Chin comes due to a recommendation from the Department of Justice who felt that the settlement proposal violates copyright, class-action and antitrust regulations. Chin stated that the hearing currently “makes no sense…as it does not appear the current settlement will be the operative one.”

A U.S. district court judge in Texas ruled against Microsoft on Wednesday in a law suit over a patent infringement in the companies software product Word. The ruling takes affect in 60 days and would ban sales of Microsoft Word versions 2003 and 2007. It also hits the software giant with a $290 million fine in damages.

These versions of the Word product contain particular use of XML which infringes on a patent filed by i4i Ltd, a small firm in Canada. Microsoft states that they plan to appeal the patent citing that they “do not infringe” and that the i4i patent is not valid. Microsoft also has a new version of Word coming out next year as part of their Office 2010 suite, which does not contain the infringing XML component. Microsoft could also simply remove the particular XML portion of the existing Word applications to comply with the court ruling for future sales.

Thinking of working out some SPAM scheme to take advantage of users on social networking sites? After last week many would-be spammers may be thinking twice. On Friday the social networking site Facebook was awarded an $873 million fine for damages from an online spammer. This was the largest settlement awarded to date under the CAN-SPAM act of 2003.

A Canadian citizen named Adam Guerbuez with his company Atlantic Blue Capital used different types earlier this year to trick Facebook users into thinking they had messages from other Facebook “friends”. The messages were really from Guerbuez and his company and contained advertisement for sex enhancement drugs, illegal narcotics and sexual explicit materials.

Cubans have been able to get underground and illegal PCs for a while, but the Cuban government only recently lifted the official ban on them. The first publicly-available machines just went on sale Friday. The QTECH PCs are state-approved are only available at a single store. The crowds had a chance to gawk at some not too cutting edge tech. The towers cost $780 and feature Celeron processors, 512MB of RAM, Windows XP, and come with a CRT display.

And even should they buy one, most Cubans won’t be allowed to have Internet access. Silly Cubans, the net is only for certain “trusted officials” and state journalists. The good news is that with computers now legally available, some expect black market prices on more up-to-date gear down the road.

Gibson Guitar Corp. is accusing Activision of violating one of their patents with the popular Guitar Hero series of video games. The patent in question is owned by Gibson since 1999 and involves a system that would let a musician “virtually” participate in a pre-recorded concert while wearing a head-mounted 3D display with speakers. The music played on the instrument would then be recorded on a separate track and available for playback with the rest of the tracks to simulate playing in a concert.

Activision’s Guitar Hero does have a similar premise, however it’s played on a “pretend” plastic guitar and is a game where the player tries to mimic notes in concert represented on the monitor by graphical musicians in a concert. Activision is disputing the claim that they infringe upon Gibson’s patent and is asking the federal court to provide an official ruling.