Ah the never ending game of patent infringement lawsuits, they always hit the headlines when taking on some of the biggest names in the smartphone world. The latest to come to light is a lawsuit by NTP when alleges Apple, HTC, Motorola, LG, Google and Microsoft all infringe on NTP patents.

According to an article by Caroline Gabriel of Rethink-Wireless, the NTP lawsuit revolved around 8 patens to do with email delivery over a wireless network. Of all the defendants only HTC would comment, with a spokesperson saying…”These types of legal disputes are actually quite common and part of the cycle of innovation.”

NTP gained a successful settlement back in 2006 against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion for $612.5 million, after which NTP when after the top 3 mobile carriers of the US but never made it to court.

However, apparently several lawyers believe that NTP’s case this time round due to many of the patents expire in 2012 and most email majors have now worked around them.