Ever since Apple iPhone was launched it has been in the bulletin making some important headlines. Whether it's the name iPhone or 'pod' for the music platform, it has always found itself surrounded with controversies.

The latest is the infringing patents against HTC for a high profile legal wrangle. The maker of smartphones such as Eris, Nexus One et al has been indicted infringing Apple iPhones Graphic User Interface (GUI) and the underlying hardware and software support systems.

Steve Jobs was quoted saying, "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it." However, this doesn't mean Apple is the saint over here. It had its own cases in the past where Apple faced legality issues with almost all of its popular products be it iPhone or the apps or the latest iPad, which is yet to be released.

To cite one of them, Apple in 1988 filed suit against HP for infringing of the GUI. The court denied all claims of Apple and granted a minute part of it to be true, which was related to the Recycle Bin design. Again, in the same year Kodak claimed for rights against Apple which claimed Apple's interface was too closely based on an unlicensed Xerox's GUI. Therefore the facts hint that the court will have a tough time in adjudging the trial.