Apple on Tuesday took aim at Google’s smartphone as it accused Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC, which makes Google’s flagship Nexus One, of violating 20 of Apple’s patents, some of which were issued in the mid-1990s.

As many as 10 of those violations involve the Nexus One, Apple said in a complaint submitted Tuesday to the U.S. International Trade Organization (ITC). Apple also filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in Delaware that cited 10 different patents. That lawsuit, however, did not specify the HTC-made phones that allegedly violated Apple’s patents.

Apple did not name Google in the federal lawsuit or in the complaint filed with the ITC.

Apple also revealed that it was among the first customers to purchase a Google Nexus One. To prove it had examined the device, it bought the smartphone on Jan. 5, 2010, the first day Google put it up for sale on its Web store.

Read the full story on Computer World.

Apple, Google, Google Nexus One, HTC Corporation, Lawsuit, Nexus One, Patent, Smartphone