Apple caused a bit of a stir last week when it announced a lawsuit filed against HTC for patent infringement. Court documents revealed later that day outlined 20 Apple patents that HTC allegedly used without negotiating appropriate licensing, ranging from "Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States," to "Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods."

The two manufacturers are clearly in for a long, drawn out court battle that will undoubtedly get messy. While no one knows what the end result will be, the broken U.S. patent system is clearly serving its purpose in ensuring that a gaggle of lawyers will continue to afford their country club dues for decades to come.

I'm not a patent attorney and I'm certainly no expert when it comes to intellectual property, so I take issue with one thing and one thing alone regarding this case: HTC is infringing on the wrong Apple patents.

Taiwan-based HTC Corporation makes fantastic smartphones. The company recently leapt head first into the Google's Android OS and to say it is emerging as a clear winner thus far is hardly an overstatement. The HTC Hero introduced the world to the Sense UI, which is arguably the most attractive and effective Android user interface on the planet. Since then, each new Android phone from HTC has been more outstanding than the last, and upcoming devices like the HTC Legend and HTC Desire are continuing the trend without question.

HTC's Android phones, like all other Android phones, rely heavily on a touchscreen for interaction with the OS. As such, the quality of an Android handset's touchscreen and the responsiveness with which it reacts to touches are of the utmost importance.

Among all manufacturers currently churning out Android phones, HTC's touchscreen displays are likely the best when it comes to feel, responsiveness and overall experience when navigating the Android OS. Even still, however, they fall miles short of providing the user experience afforded by the touchscreen displays on Apple's iPhone line.

When a user touches the silky smooth surface of an iPhone display, it is as if the UI is glued to his or her finger. The user feels as though he or she is poking right through the treated glass screen and actually touching the UI. Every miniscule movement is recorded and instantly acted upon by the phone. Smooth drags, jerky twitches, quick pinches, violent flicks... The iPhone's capacitive touchscreen and minimal UI are always in sync and are seemingly impossible to trip up.

Every iPhone user on the planet can attest to this, and anyone who has picked up an iPhone or iPod touch for even a few moments will confirm that the touchscreen quality is unlike any other device on the market -- at least until the Apple iPad is released.

On the flip side of the coin, HTC makes great touchscreens as well. Had Apple never introduced the iPhone or iPod touch, the touchscreen experience found on HTC devices would be fantastic. Unfortunately, Apple did introduce the iPhone and iPod touch. By comparison, HTC's touchscreens seem archaic.

Some HTC devices -- the Google Nexus One comes to mind -- outperform others, but none provide the glue-like experience found on Apple devices.

Much of the touch experience on HTC handsets is smooth and steady, but the phones regularly stutter and stammer when the processor is cranked up or when fingers are moving too fast. Swiping quickly on Web pages to scroll often results in choppy movements, and touch responses can sometimes seem delayed across most areas of the operating system. Taps on app icons sometimes aren't registered, causing the user to tap a second, third or even fourth time before the app is finally launched. Beyond that, lack of OS-wide multitouch support means speedy typists will constantly find themselves missing letters.

So, if HTC did in fact throw caution and law to the wind when building its Android smartphones, I sincerely wish it had taken things a few steps further and dug through some of the Apple patents that resulted in the best touchscreen experience money can buy. Had it done so, interaction with HTC's Android smartphones would compliment their best-in-class designs and beautifully skinned interfaces much, much better.

Perhaps it's not too late.

Contact Zach Epstein, Editor-in-Chief of Know your Cell, via email or follow @zacharye on Twitter