According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on Friday, Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC has filed a patent counterclaim against Apple, in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, this week.

The latest filing by HTC comes in response to a patent-infringement claim which US tech biggie Apple had made in March.

Going by the WSJ report, HTC has claimed in its latest filing that two of Apple's popular devices – the iPhone and the MacBook – violated two patents which the company had acquired from Hewlett-Packard last year. The patents in question pertain to computer networks and desktop remote control management.

HTC’s filing of patent counterclaim against Apple comes close on the heels of a last-week ruling by UK courts that HTC has not been found guilty of infringing on four of Apple's European-held patents.

The UK courts ruled that out of those four patents, three were invalid --- the ones which pertained to Apple's multi-touch software, alphabet-changing software, and the slide-to-unlock feature of the iPhone and iPad. While the fourth patent – related to Apple's photo-management software – was valid, the courts found HTC not guilty.

Meanwhile, the WSJ report revealed that, about filing patent counterclaim against Apple, HTC said in a statement that it "respects innovation and intellectual property rights and will continue to aggressively protect our intellectual property.”