HTC is making a good show of not being distracted by its legal problems. In a July teleconference, CEO Peter Chou dismissed its disputes with Apple as "side effects" and "little disturbances" that affect any growing company.

The global electronics market has become more turbulent and Taiwan companies need to be "physically fit" to compete, Stan Shih, founder of Acer Group, said in a recent interview.

"You can't foresee the tactics your rivals will use to crush you," he said. Taiwanese companies are relative newcomers to the patent game but have been upping their investments in this area, he added.

HTC is spreading its bets. A big Android supporter in recent years, last week it became one of the first vendors to launch phones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Mango software.

Mango has tighter integration with Microsoft's online Office applications. But not surprisingly, the HTC phones, called Titan and Radar, also include some of HTC's own applications, such as HTC Watch, which allows users to watch film trailers and rent or download films to their devices.