Fractus has revealed that it has sued 10 cellphone manufacturers this week over their allegedly violating nine different patents relating to internal cellphone antenna technology. The Spanish company's targets are most important world firms and involve HTC, Kyocera, LG, Palm, Pantech, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sharp, Sanyo and UTStarcom. These companies were aware of the patents but violated their use all the same, Fractus claims.

It's not known if Fractus believes any other companies might tread on the patent.

The complaint was filed in an Eastern District of Texas court in Tyler, a region infamous for being favored by companies relying primarily or exclusively on patent lawsuits for income. Fractus is keen to state, however, that it's an "active supplier" that has shipped millions of antennas in the past. A successful lawsuit would likely require that the prices for BlackBerries and many other mainstream phones include a small royalty payment to Fractus.

Most companies haven't commented on the lawsuit, though HTC has gone on record in Taiwan's Commercial Times newspaper as claiming the patents are not HTC's "core technology" and doesn't affect any of its current smartphones. The Touch Diamond creator plans to fight the allegations in court. [via Unwired View]