HTC says it's not going down without a fight in Apple patent war

In Apple's phone patent battle, HTC, the creator of Google’s Nexus phone, said Wednesday that it’s not going down without a fight.

“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself,” wrote Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC, in a release. “HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”

A quick primer: In early March, Apple filed a patent infringement suit against HTC, claiming the Taiwan-based phone maker infringed on 20 patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.

Apple listed several HTC phones in its suit, including a handful of Android and Windows Mobile based phones. But the Nexus One is about the closest thing to an iPhone from the lineup of HTC phones, analysts say, so it appeared that Apple was also taking on Google with its patent case.